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THE 

FOREST TREES OF BRITAIN. 



THE 

FOREST TREES OP BRITAIN. 



BY THE , 

EEV. G.L JOHSS, B.A,, F.L.S,, 

AUTHOR OF " BOTANICAL RAMBLES," &C. 



PUBLISHED USiDEE. THE DIRECTIOX OE 
THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AMD EDL'CATIOy, 
APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROM0TIIC& 
CHRISTIAN KNQ-R-LEDGE. 



IN TWO VOLUMES. 

^^^^ 

^ f VOLUME I. 




LONDON : 

PRINTED FOR 

THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTIIs^a CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE ; 

SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY, 
GKEAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, AND 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE. 
AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. 




London : 
Printed by Samcel Bextley & Co.. 
Bangor House. Shoe Lane. 




CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction ix 

The Oak 5 

The Ilex, Evergreen Oak, or Holm-oak 95 

The Sycamore 103 

The Common, or Field Maple , 121 

The Ash 131 

The Box 161 

The Hawthorn ] 79 

The Blackthorn 239 

The Cherry 257 

The Bird-cherry 271 

The Mountain Ash 277 

The White-beam 287 

Wild Service-tree 289 

The Pear 291 

The Apple 301 

The Beech 313 

The Poplar 355 

The White Poplar, or Abele-tree 355 

The Grey Poplar 353 

The Black Poplar 361 

The Trembling Poplar, or Aspen 365 

Foreign Poplars 370 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

The Rufus Stone .frontispiece. 

Oak in "Wistman's "Wood 13 

The great Stag-Beetle 38 

The Leaf-roller Caterpillar 35 

The Oakweb, or Cockchafer Beetle 36 

Oak Galls 39 

Flower-stalks of the Oak 43 

Leaf Galls 44 

Oak Spangles 45 

Leaf of the Ilex 94 

The Sycamore 102 

Leaf and Tlower of the Sycamore 110 

Seed and Seed-vessels of ditto ^ Ill 

Maple in Boldre Churchyard 120 

Leaf and Flower of the Maple 122 

The Ash 130 

The Spray of the Ash '143 

The Seed . . > 144 

The Pollard Ash 153 

The oldest "Woodcut on record 169 

Old Woodcut of St. Christopher 170 

Thorn at Newham 178 



vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

The May-pole 194 

The Common Hawthorn 200 

Hawthorn Blossom 204 

Fruit of the Hawthorn 205 

The Haw-finch 216 

The Hethel Thorn . . , 220 

The Witch Thorn 226 

HaT^^hom Butterfly 228 

Yellow-tailed Motli 233 

BrowTi-tailed Moth - ; o . = 234 

Sloe- Flower 238 

The Sloe 241 

Fruit and Foliage of the Bullace-tree 246 

Myrobalan Plum 247 

Magnum -bonum Plum 248 

The Copper-coloured Weevil 251 

The Plum Saw-flv 253 

The Wild Cherry-tree 256 

Flower of the Wild Cherry 259 

Fruit of the Wild CheiTy 260 

Blossom of the Bird-cherry 272 

Fruit of the Bird- cherry 273 

Portugal Laurel 274 

The Mountain Ash 276 

Flowers of the Mountain Ash 283 

Fruit of the Momitain Ash , 284 

The White-beam 287 

The Wild Service-tree 289 

Flower of the Pear-tree 295 

Paradoxical Pear-fly 298 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. vii 

PAGE 

(Ecidium Cancellatum 299 

Blossom of the Apple-tree 302 

The Ermine Moth 308 

Grubs of the Ermine Moth 309 

Codlin Moth 310 

The Purley Beeches „ 312 

Village of Selbome 320 

Branch of the Beech 326 

Foliage and Flowers of the Beech 329 

Morels 343 

Truffles 344 

Cittaria Darwinii 346' 

Beech- tree in West Hey Wood 349 

Lombardv Poplar 352 

Leaf of the White Poplar 356 

Catkins of the Grey Poplar 357 

Black Poplar 360 

Leaf of the Black Poplar 361 

The Aspen 366 



INTRODUCTION. 



The Author's object in preparing these little 
Volumes, is to furnish the lover of Nature with 
such information respecting the trees which are 
either natives of Great Britain, or naturalized 
in it, as will tend to impart additional interest 
to his wanderings in the country. The reader, 
therefore, must not expect to find the announce- 
ment of any botanical discovery, any suggestions 
of new methods of planting, or recommendations 
for the improvement of timber. If he desires 
information on these points, he is referred to the 
numerous excellent works abeady in existence 
which treat on these subjects. But if he be 
merely desirous of exploring the wonders of Na- 
ture as they are displayed in the more stately vege- 
table productions of his native country, it is 
hoped that he will find in the following pages, 
not, indeed, enough to satisfy his curiosity, but to 
stimulate him to fresh research. The Author 
assures him that even his own slender amount of 
scientific attainments can crowd the hedges and 
by-ways with countless miracles, which for the 
untrained eye have no being. 

Scarcely any country in Europe is so favour- 
able to the general study of the trees of tem- 
perate climates as England ; for, without going 
so far as to assert that the number of native and 



X 



INTRODUCTION. 



introduced species exceeds that of all other states, 
it may be said with safety, that, whereas in most 
other countries the rare kinds are almost ex- 
clusively confined to botanic gardens and public 
institutions, the wealth and good taste of the 
English gentry procure for all trees worthy of 
introduction, and adapted to the climate, admis- 
sion into the numerous parks with which the 
whole land is studded ; where, without excep- 
tion, for all purposes of observation and study, 
they are as much the property of the curious 
investigator, as of the lord of the soil himself. 
Scarcely a town in England is be5'0nd a reason- 
able distance of some lordly demesne, abounding 
in fine specimens of most of our native trees, 
as well as many foreign ones, to the former of 
which the Author hopes to introduce his readers 
in the following pages. 

Technical terms have been as far as possible 
avoided : but since, in describing the structure 
of a tree, it is necessary to apply to the several 
parts the conventional terms assigned to each part 
in scientific works, it has been judged advisable 
to give a general but slight sketch of the ana- 
tomical structure of a tree belonging to the class 
in which all the British trees are comprised. 

The elementary organs of all vegetables are 
either cells or vessels, which either singly or con- 
jointly form what are called the cellular tissue and 
vascular system of plants. Cellular tissue is the 
simplest form of organised vegetable substance, 
and may be stated to be a combination of mem- 
branous cavities, the form and size of wliich are 



INTRODUCTION. 



XI 



subject to endless variation even in different parts 
of the same plant. They contain watery juices, 
true sap, sugar, gum, resin, &c. : ^ ^ 
sometimes they appear empty, or ' ^ - 
are filled only with air. They vary 7 ~ ^ 
in consistence, from the soft pulp T> 
of the peach, to the stony nut which ^ y-^ 

it encloses. They have the powder ^ 

P . n • 1 /? V CELLULAR TISSUE. 

01 transmittmg liuid irom one to 
another, though no pores have been to a cer- 
tainty discovered in the membrane of which their 
sides are composed. 

The vascular system comprises all those parts 
of plants which are known in common language 
by the names of fibres, nerves, veins, tubes, &c., 
all of which may be classed under the term ves- 
sels." They are found in the root, trunk, branches, 
leaves, and fiowers of trees, collected into bundles, 
but often so closely connected as to have the 
appearance of simple tubes. They are either 
of an uniform continuous substance throughout 
their whole length, when they constitute ivoody 
fibre; or are composed of a thread, or collection 
of threads, twisted spirally, so as to form a tube, 
and capable of being unrolled with elasticity. 
If a leaf of the strawberry, or young twig of 
the cornel, be broken, and the parts gently torn 
asunder, they will be discovered like fine cob- 
webs uniting the ragged edges. Under the micro- 
scope, if stretched, they resemble a corkscrew ; 
but if examined at rest, their appearance may 
be compared to that of a bell-spring, that is 
a coil of wire wound round a cylinder which 
has been afterwards removed. They are called 
spiral vessels, A third form of vessels is the duct^ 



xii 



INTRODUCTION. 



which is a membranous, and not elastic tube, 
the sides of which are marked with transverse 
lines or spiral dots. These vary in form more 




WOODY FIBRE. SPIRAL VESSEL. DUCT. 

than either of the last two, of one or other of 
which they appear, in many instances, to be 
modifications. The use of vessels generally ap- 
pears to be to convey the ascending and descend- 
ing currents of sap and air ; but, owing to their 
extreme minuteness, and the difficulty of observa- 
tion, there is much difference of opinion as to the 
exact purposes which they severally answer in the 
economy of plants. 

Trees are either endogenous (growing inwardly), 
or exogenous (growing outwardly). All the trees 
described in these volumes belong to the latter 
class. A transverse section of the trunk of any 
one of these trees will present the appearance 
about to be described, varying more or less ac- 



INTRODUCTION. 



, xiii 



cording to the species, age, and circmxistances of 
growth of the specimen selected. The centre, 
called pith^ consists of an uninterrupted column 
of cellular tissue, mthout any admixture of ves- 
sels. The cells are hexagonal: in their early 
stage they are green and filled with fluid ; as the 
tree advances in age they become bro^ra and dry, 
and sometimies hard. The pith never alters in 
size after its first year's growth, and is generally 




TRANSVERSE SECTION OF EXOGENOUS TREE. 

found to be larger in strong lateral shoots than 
in the main stem, of which the Elder affords a 
marked example. It is enclosed in a thin tube 
composed of woody fibre and spiral vessels, called 
the medullary sheath (from medulla^ marrow, to 



xiv 



INTRODUCTION. 



wliich substance pith was formerly supposed to be 
analogous). The medullary sheath retains its 
vitality after the pith itself has ceased to per- 
form its functions, and extends its spiral vessels 
into the leaves, flowers, and fruit. Immediately 
without this is a dark-coloured cylinder, consist- 
ing of woody-fibre and ducts cemented together, 
as it were, by cellular tissue. This layer was de- 
posited during the first year in wliich the tree 
reached the height at which the section was 
made ; it was then white, and is supposed to have 
derived its dark colour from the proper juices dis- 
charged by the ducts. The term heart-wood is 
employed to distinguish it after it has acquired 
this colour. The first layer of heart-w^ood is en- 
closed in a second, precisely similar, except that 
the medullary sheath is absent ; and the whole 
substance of the trunk is made up of layers of 
the same form and structure, the exterior circles 
being softer and colourless, whence the outer 
wood is called alburnum (from alhus, w^hite). 
Each of these layers having been deposited during 
the growing season of a single year, there will be 
little difficulty in fixing the age of the tree, pro- 
vided that it has not been checked by transplan- 
tation, and that it has been subjected to a climate 
where the termination of one year's growth and 
the beginning of the next have been well defined 
by the intervention of winter, as a period of rest. 
In hot climates trees experience no season of 
perfect cessation from growth ; and when this is 
the case, the annual layers are so confused, as to 
permit no certain criterion of age. The same 
may be said of trees of great antiquity, for in 
these also the aimual circles are often imperfectly 



INTRODUCTION. 



XV 



defined. The external coating of the tree, the 
bark, is composed of two distinct parts. The 
outer, called the cuticle or skin, consists entirely 
of cellular tissue ; in young steins it is more or 
less succulent, but in old stems becomes withered 
and dry. Underneath the cuticle is a layer of 
woody fibre, called the liber, or iniier hark. This 
is succeeded by another layer of cuticle and liber, 
there being as many rings of bark as there are of 
wood. As each of these rings is deposited annu- 
ally inside the old bark, the outer one of all was 
formed during the same year with that circle of 
wood which is next to the pith ; but since the 
circumference of the tree when the first layer was 
formed was much smaller than at any subsequent 
period, and its power of expanding was very 
limited after a year or two, the increased size of 
the trunk compelled it to split into irregular 
pieces ; and hence arises the rugged appearance 
of the exterior of most trees. The Plane, and 
some other trees which do not present this rough 
appearance, annually throw off* the outer coat of 
liber and cuticle in large plates, so that their bark 
furnishes no criterion for discovering the age of 
the trees. The Currant-tree throws off* its outer 
bark in horny rings ; the Birch, in long thin 
ribands. The cuticle is not confined to the trunk 
of a tree, but invests the branches, leaves, and 
even the most delicate parts of the flow^er, being 
modified into hairs, down, prickles, &c., and 
being frequently perforated for the transmission 
of fluids and gases. Between the outer circle of 
wood and the inner layer of bark is interposed 
(while the tree is in a growing state) a mucila- 
ginous fluid, called cambium^ which, as it exhibits 



xvi INTRODUCTION. 

traces of cellular structure, is supposed to be 
destined to be converted into the wood and bark 
of the current year. It probably owes its origin 
to the newly -formed wood and bark with which 
it is in contact, but keeps up the connnunication 
with the pith by means of thin plates of cellular 
tissue, called medullary rays, or the silver grain, 
which radiate from the centre to the circumference 
throughout the whole length of the stem : they 
are very conspicuous in wainscot oak. 

Exogenous plants derive their name from de- 
positing successive layers of wood outside that 
previously formed : in these the wood nearest 
the centre is the oldest and hardest, and the 
stem is largest near the base. Endogenous trees, 
on the other hand, have no central column of 
pith, nor are the vascular and cellular systems 
defined ; but every new deposit of wood is made 
within a trunk, which, when once formed, does 
not alter in size during any period of its exist- 
ence : consequently, the stem, is constantly be- 
coming more and more compact, the most perfect 
and the hardest part of its substance being near 
the circumference. Of this class of trees we have 
no British specimens ; but in many, of the Palms, 
which attain a great age, the outside becomes so 
hard as to withstand a blow of a hatchet. 

The structure of the branches of Exogenous 
trees is precisely similar to that of the trunk, 
each one consisting of a central colmnn of pith, 
a medullary sheath, and a number of rings of 
wood and bark corresponding to the age of the 
branch, these various parts being severally con- 
tinuous with the same organs in the trunk. Even 
the topmost twig is but a repetition of the main 



INTRODUCTION. Xvii 

stem as it was in its infancy. The leaf, with its 
stalk or petiole, is composed of transparent, colour- 
less cuticle, enclosing bundles of woody fibre and 
spiral vessels, which expand and form a network, 
the interstices of which are filled up with pulpy 
cellular tissue, usually of a green colour, and 
called parenchyma. The lower end of the petiole 
is articulated to the bark, and the leaf itself differs 
from the solid part of the trunk by being merely 
of temporary duration, usually falling off* with a 
clean fracture before it begins to decay. If, 
however, a branch be severed from the trunk, 
or vitality be suddenly destroyed in any other 
way, the leaves generally lose the power of throw- 
ing themselves off*. Hence we may frequently 
see, in winter, a broken branch hanging from a 
tree still retaining its withered foliage, when not 
a leaf is to be seen on the healthy branches. 
Leaves have been called the lungs of a plant, not 
from any resemblance in shape which they may 
be supposed to bear to that organ, but from a 
similarity in their functions. In the lungs of 
animals the blood is exposed to the action of at- 
mospheric air, the oxygen of which is retained, 
and carbonic acid gas is respired, the blood it- 
self being thus converted into proper nourish- 
ment for the animal frame : and the leaves of 
plants absorb through pores in their cuticle 
carbonic acid gas, which they in like manner 
decompose ; carbon, the principal component of 
woody fibre, is deposited, and pure oxygen re- 
stored to the air. By this arrangement of the 
all-wise Creator of the universe, animals are in- 
cessantly breathing out a gas deleterious to them- 
selves but essentia] to the growth of vegetables ; 

h 



xviii 



INTRODUCTIOX. 



and the latter^ while in their growing state and 
exposed to the action of lights are engaged in se- 
parating from the air all that is noxious to animals, 
and restoring to it in its pure state that which 
supports their ^-itality. Thus we are permitted 
to see, that, were not the earth occupied by 
the proportion of animals and vegetables which 
He has ordained, it would be fit for the support 
of neither. The leaves, too (to borrow a simile 
from machinery), serve as a safety-valve to the 
whole complex structure of which they form a 
part : if the roots absorb a greater C[uantity of 




CUTICLE OF A LEAF, SHOWING THE STOMATA. 



moisture than is consistent \\dth the well-being 
of the tree, the leaves are furnished ^^ith an 
apparatus for transmitting it in the form of va- 
pour to the air; and if, on the other hand, the 



INTRODUCTION. 



xix 



ground be parched and unable to furnish a supply, 
they absorb as much as will compensate for the 
deficiency, and return it, duly prepared for the 
nourishment of every organ which requires food, 
and so combined with other substances, and in 
such proportions, that whatever may be needed, 
be it gum, or resin, or starch, or sugar, or any 
other of the numberless substances which exist 
in vegetables, every twig, vessel, and cell is fed 
as it was when the earth first brought forth the 
fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind. 

The vessels nearest the upper surface of the 
leaf are connected mth the medullary sheath : 
those beneath with the liber ; and there is good 
reason to suppose that the cambium is deposited 
in the position which it occupies, between the 
bark and the wood, by the returning vessels of 
the leaf. The cuticle, both on the upper and 
under surfaces, is plentifully furnished with pores, 
termed stamata, the precise action of which is 
much disputed. The petiole is sometimes fur- 
nished mth a leaf -like appendage termed a stipule, 
as in the Rose and many spe- 



cies of Willow. The angle 
between the base of the pe- 
dicle and the stem is called 




the axil, and is always oc- v . ^"^-^^ 

cupied by a bud, which from >^'[ "v/ 
its position is said to be ax- % \ 
illary. A bud in the de- "^i/ 
ciduous trees of northern I 
climates is a rudimentary 

shoot enclosed within scales, which serve to pro- 
tect it from cold and accidents. In young trees 
it usually produces a spray of leaves similar to 



XX 



INTRODUCTION. 



that in the axil of which it is situated. In many 
cases those buds only which are nearest to the 
extremitj' of a branch are developed: the rest 
appear to be reserved in case those above them 
should be injured by blight or other accident: but 
that every one is perfectly adapted for perpetuat- 
ing the individual may be proved, by removing 
from a branch in early spring all those which are 
evidently beginning to burst ; when it will be 
speedily found, that the smallest and least pro- 
mising bud on the branch (if it be the only one) 
will appropriate the nourishment intended for 
the rest, and burst into active life. 

At a pei;iod w^hich varies in different kinds of 
trees, some buds will be observed to assume a 
more complex structure ; they no longer exclu- 
sively produce leaves of an uniform character, 
but make preparations for continuing the species. 
Some of the buds now contain the embryos of 
plants which are destined to have roots and 
trunks of their owm. These must be nursed 
and protected and matured by leaves, so altered 
in their structure and offices, that, had we not 
frequent opportunities of obser^dng them in 
their transition stages, we might well doubt 
whether they were leaves at all, and not rather 
distinct organs, referable to no type hitherto 
existing in the plant. The varieties of form to 
which the flower is subject are far too niunerous 
to be even touched upon here. They may literally 
be said to be endless ; for many as those are 
w^hich have been described, every traveller in un- 
explored countries is daily adding to the list. 
For the sake, hovv^ever, of explaining the terms 
which occur in these volumes, it will be necessary 



INTRODUCTION. 



XXI 



to mention the principal modifications of the 
leaf which exist in some one or other of our 
common flowers. After the expansion of a bud 
of this more complicate structure, a stem will 
be observed to protrude very similar to a petiole, 
except that it is not channelled on its upper side, 
and is generally known by the name of peduncle. 
It is either simple or branched, and bears at its 
extremity, or in the latter case at the extremity 
of each pedicel (or little peduncle), several small 
leaves (sepo.ls) united at their bases so as to form 




a cup, hence called the calyx. The modified 
leaves which constitute the calyx are usually of a 
different form from the true leaves, but not 
always ; the sepals of some species 
of . Rose scarcely differ from the 
leaves, except in being smaller and 
more dilated at the base. The 
calyx is frequently accompanied 
externally by small stalkless leaves, 
which are termed bracts. They 
are generally more like the sepals 
than the true leaves, but some- 
times, and especially when continued through the 
whole length/of the peduncle, pass by an almost 




CALYX LEAF OF 
ROSE. 



xxii 



INTRODUCTION. 



imperceptible transition from one into the other. 
Within the calyx is the corolla^ an assemblage of 
delicately modified leaves, 
Y-^^^^^ \k arranged alternately with the 
m^-^r \. sepals, and usually coloured, 

I a word used by botanists to 
I denote any hue but green. 
^ They are called petals^ and, 
BRACTS, CALYX, AND as wcU as the sepals, are 
COROLLA. often united throughout 

their lower portion into a tiibe, the expanded 
part being then called the limh. The lower part 
of a single petal is called the claw, the upper the 




COROLLA OF ONE PETAL. COROLLA OF FIVE PETALS. PETALS. 



border. Petals often bear so strong a resem- 
blance to sepals, that it is almost impossible to 
.V,; . distinguish one from the other, as 

ffi&P I W in the tulip. Within the corolla, 
lif I and sometimes cohering with it, is 
^ a row or several rows of delicate 
threadlike organs, called stamens. 
These are composed of three parts : 
STA3IENS. filament, or thread-like j)or- 

tion, the same in structure as the petiole of a leaf 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxiii 



but more delicate ; the anther^ a two-celled body- 
surmounting the filament, and, when mature, 
usually bursting longitudinally, and allowing an 
escape to the pollen, a light dust-like substance, 
which is the fructifying principle of the flower. 
Within the stamens, and occupying 
a central position in the flower, is 
the pistil, which also consists of three 
parts, the germen, the style, and the 
stigma: the germen or ovary, is a 
hollow case at the base of the pistil 
enclosing the seed, and finally be- distil. 
coming the fruit ; the style is the column which 
rises from the ovary and supports the stigma 
or summit of the pistil. The stigma differs 
from all other parts of the plant, in not being 
covered with cuticle : it generally has a moist 
surface for the purpose of arresting the particles 
of pollen, which convey the fertilising principle 
through the tubes of the style to the ovary. 
The filament and style are not always present, 
and in this case the anther and stigma are said 
to be sessile, or sitting. The calyx and corolla 
are not essential to the perfecting of seeds ; but 
unless stamens and pistils are present, either in 
the same or different flow^ers, no fruit can be 
matured. On the number, relative lengths, 
combinations, and position of these essential 
organs, Linnaeus founded his Artificial System 
of the arrangement of plants, the class being 
for the most part decided by reference to the 
stamens, the order being dependent on the pistils. 
It is now unfortunately too much the custom to 
decry the system of Linnaeus, and to speak of 
his time as the dark age of botany ; " but its 



xxiv 



INTRODUCTION. 



great inventor himself confessed his scheme to 
be imperfect, and recommended it only as a 
substitute for some undiscovered system, which 
should associate plants of similar structm^e ; his 
own method being open to the objection that it 
brought together those which were not physiolo- 
gically connected, and separated many which 
were closely related. Modern botanists have 
freely availed themselves of the discoveries of 
Linn^us, and have undoubtedly made consider- 
able advances tovrards a Natural System, against 
which this objection cannot be urged, but they 
have neglected to tender their acknowledgments 
to one who did more to dissipate the gloom in 
which the science of Xatural History was shroud- 
ed, than any, or even all, of his predecessors. 

It has been already stated, that all our British 
trees are in their growth exogenous : hence they 
are arranged in a class, together with nmnberless 
herbs, shrubs, and trees, and called Exogens, 
They are distinguished by the marks given above, 
and by their seeds being composed of at least 
two lobes, called cotyledons, held together by a 
minute organ, the upper part of which, the 
plumule (a little feather), is a rudimentary stem ; 

the lower, the radicle, is, as its 
name implies, a rudimentary root. 
The cotyledons are leaves, dif- 
fering in shape from those after- 
wards developed, and serving to 
nourish the young plant until 
COTYLEDONS OF proper leaves are formed. When 
^^'^^* the seeds germinate, the coty- 
ledons generally rise above the ground, bringing 
the plumule with them : sometimes, as in the 




INTRODUCTION. 



XXV 



Windsor bean, they remain beneath the soil 
until their office is fulfilled, when they perish. 
If destroyed prematurely, the young plant dies 




WINDSOR BEAN. 

with them ; in garden-mustard, for instance, they 
are cut as spring salad, and the plants wither away. 
As the number of cotyledons is nearly always two, 
this class is by some botanists termed Dicoty- 
ledons, Dicotyledons, or Exogens, are subdivided 
into several suh-classes, and these again into a 
multitude of orders, the limits of vsdiich it is not 
necessary to touch on in a work of this kind. 
Suffice it to say, that each natural order consists 
of a number of plants assembled, to a certain ex- 
tent, arbitrarily, though not without regard to their 
similarity of structure, especially in the organs 
of fructification. The plants comprised in each 
natural order are again distributed into genera 
(families), each genus including all plants which 



XXVI 



INTRODUCTION. 



resemble one another yet more closely in the 
essential characters of fructification. A species 
(kind) is an assemblage of individual plants, agree- 
ing with each other in all essential points ; and 
individuals which difi'er one from another in minor 
points, such as an irregular formation of leaves 
or mode of growth, unusual colour of flowers, ex- 
traordinary number of petals, &c., are termed 
varieties. These words are frequently used 
loosely in common conversation; but the habit 
cannot be too carefully avoided in botanical de- 
scriptions, as calculated to produce endless con- 
fusion. Throughout these pages they will be 
employed exclusively with the meanings above 
assigned, which will be rendered clearer by the 
following examples : — The wild, sw^eet-scented 
violet is called by botanists Viola odorata ; the 
former name, Viola, indicating that it belongs to 
the genus so called, and being therefore termed 
its generic name. Besides the scented violet, we 
have in England the dog-violet, the marsh-violet, 
the pansy, and several others, all belonging to 
the same genus, and being therefore included 
under the name Viola : but the dog-violet differs 
from the sweet-scented, in having acute sepals 
and leafy stems, .w^hereas the latter has blunt 
sepals, and the leaves spring directly from the 
roots. The dog-violet is therefore a distinct spe- 
cies, Viola canma. The marsh-violet and pansy 
differ also in important characters ; they are 
therefore also considered distinct species, the fact 
being indicated by the addition of the specific 
or trivial names, palustris and tricolor, to the 
generic name Viola, The flowers of the scented 
violet are sometimes white and sometimes blue ; 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxvii 



garden specimens are often tinged with, pink, 
and still more frequently double : these characters 
being either unimportant or inconstant,— for blue 




DOG-VIOLET, SCENTED VIOLET. 



flowers generally have a great tendency to sport 
to white, and double flowers are not perpetuated 
by seed, — the blue, white, pink, and double sweet 
violets are not considered distinct species, but 
mere varieties. Now there are many plants which 
bear a close resemblance to a violet in the struc- 



xxviii 



INTRODUCTION. 



ture of their flowers and seeds, but yet difler 
so far, that they cannot be reduced under the 
same genus; they are therefore placed with it 
in the same natural order called Violace^, or 
Violet Tribe, all the genera in which difler in 
essential points from the genera which compose 
other orders, but agree with a vast number in 
having two-lobed seeds and leaves luith netted 
veins, two of the characters of Exogens, The 
flower of which we have been speaking belongs, 
then, to the class Exogens, natural order Vio- 
lace^, genus Viola, species odorata, of v/hich 
species it is a white, or blue, or double variety. 
In the Limiaean system, the same plant is placed 
in the class Pentandria, which comprises flowers 
having five stamens ; and in the order Monogynia, 
which includes such of them as have but one 
pistil. 

Every natural arrangement of plants professes 
to bring together those which most resemble 
each other in all respects ; and the reader will 
see, from the following table, how far the pro- 
mise is fulfilled with regard to those orders 
which contain British trees. The botanical cha- 
racters of each order are not given, partly to \ 
avoid extending the introduction to too great ' 
a length, and partly from the difliculty w^hich 
attends the execution of such a task, without ^ 
employing technical terms, which w^ould be un- 
intelligible to the general reader. 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxix 




THE Li:.IE TREE. 



TILIAC^. 

LIME TRIBE. 

The plants belonging to this natural order are 
mostly trees or shrubs. They have all a muci- 
laginous wholesome juice, and many of them are 
remarkable for the toughness of the fibres of the 
inner bark. In a species of Aristotelia this is 
so strong, as to be converted into strings for 
musical instruments. One genus (Cbrchorus) sup- 
i plies the Indians with fishing-lines and nets ; and 
I the Lime or Linden tree furnishes the material 
ji of which, in Russia, bast mats are made. Some 
j i genera produce edible berries, and the bony seeds 
j i of others are not uncommonly set in gold, and 



XXX INTRODUCTION. 

form handsome necklaces. In several instances 
the timber is employed for the most useful pur- 
poses. The name of the order is derived from 
Tilia, the Linden-tree, the only British genus. 



ACERINEiE. 

MAPLE TRIBE. 

This is a small order, comprising only three 
genera, all of which are confined to the tempe- 
rate resrions of the rfobe. The more remarkable 
species, with their properties, will be found men- 
tioned in the description of the Sycamore and 
Maple. The only British genus is Acer, the 
Maple, which gives name to the order. 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxxi 




LEAF, FLOWERS, AND 



FRUIT OF THE SYCAMORE. 



XXXll 



IXTRODUCTIOX. 




HORSE CHESTNUT. 

HIPPOCASTAXE^. 

HORSE-CHESTNUT TRIBE. 

These are trees or shrubs, furnished ^ith ir- 
regular flovrers, the petals of which never agree 
in number with the stamens. The few species 
that belono' to this order sfrow in the north of In- 
dia and North America, They are chiefly remark- 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxxiii 



able for their large seeds, which contain a con- 
siderable quantity of starch, and consequently 
possess nutritive properties. It is, however, 
asserted that the Buck-eye, or American Horse- 
chestnut, is a deadly poison, a bitter narcotic 
principle being contained in the root, leaves, and 
fruit. Potash also enters into the composition of 
the seeds, and in some instances to such an extent, 
that they may be used as a substitute for soap. 

The Horse-chestnuts are included by some bo- 
tanists in the more extensive order of Soap worts, 
of which the following are the most remarkable 
examples. The Soap-tree, Sapindus saponaria, 
produces fruit which lathers freely in water and 
is used in the West Indies as a substitute for 
soap. A pound of the fruit, it is said, will cleanse 
more linen than sixty pounds of soap. The dis- 
tilled water of the flowers of the soapy Cupania 
is used by Negro-women as a lotion for the face. 

Other allied genera are very poisonous : a spe- 
cies of Paulinia, a Brazilian tree, has bark, 
leaves, and fruit, which abound in an acrid prin- 
ciple, and the blacks prepare from them an insidi- 
ous poison which slowly but certainly destroys 
life. Several others possess intoxicating proper- 
ties, and some are medicinal. From the seeds of 
Paulinia sorhilis a food called Guarana bread is 
prepared by the savages of Brazil, which is sold 
all over the country as an indispensable requisite 
for travellers, and a cure for many disorders. The 
genus Nephelium furnishes many of the most deli- 
cious fruits of the Indian Archipelago. The 
Snake-nut tree, described by Schomburgk, is a 
native of Demerara, and is so called from the 
curved embryo of the seed which, when in a state 

e 



xxxiv 



INTRODUCTION. 



of germination, resembles a coiled snake. No 
plant of this order is indigenous to Britain, but 
several varieties of Horse-chestnut are common 
in parks and plantations. The Pavia-tree is not 
unfrequently to be met with in such situations. 
It differs from the Horse-chestnut in having its 
seeds enclosed in a smooth instead of prickly case. 



CELASTRINE^. 

SPINDLE-TREE TRIBE. 

A rather large number of plants are included 
in this order, but not many of great interest. 
They are natives of the warmer parts of Europe, 
North America, and Asia, and a great number 
inhabit the Cape of Good Hope. A few^ also 
occur in Chili, Peru, and New Holland. Many 
of them possess an acrid, stimulant principle : the 
green leaves of one species are said to be eaten 
by the Arabs to produce watchfulness, and a 
sprig of it is believed to be a protection from the 
plague to the person who carries it. The only 
British species, the Spindle-tree, is most remark- 
able for its pink, lobed seed-vessels, which, in 
autumn, render the tree a conspicuous object. 
One species of Celastrus (the genus from which 
the order takes its name) is said to inflict pain- 
ful w^ounds. The English name is derived from 
the use made of its very compact wood. 



INTRODUCTION. 



XXXV 




BRANCH OF THE SPINDLE-TREE. 



XXXVl 



INTRODUCTION. 




BUCKTHORN. 

RHAMNE^. 

BUCKTHORN TRIBE. 

This order contains between two and three 
hundred trees and shrubs, often thorny, which 
inhabit all parts of the world except the arctic 
zone. Some species of Ziziphus produce the 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxxvii 



jujube, well known in this country as a sweet- 
meat. Ziziphus Lotus is famous for being the 
plant which afforded food to the ancient Loto- 
phagi, or Lotus-eaters.* Homer states that it 
was so delicious, that whatever stranger once 
tasted it immediately forgot his friends and native 
comitrv, and desired only to dwell within reach of 
it. It is a prickly shrub, and bears an abundance 
of purplish berries of the size of sloes, and con- 
taining large stones. The pulp is mealy and of a 
delicious flavour. Under the name of seedra or 
sadr, it still affords food to the Arabs, who sepa- 
rate the pulp from the stone by gently pounding 
the fruit in a mortar, and either convert it into 
a kind of bread at once, or lav it by for winter 
use. A kind of wine is also made from the fruit, 
but this will not keep more than a few days. 
]\Iungo Park, Dr. Shaw, and other travellers 
found the tree in abundance in many of the sandy 
parts of Arabia; and the latter states that the 
fruit called nabk, is regularly exposed for sale 
in the markets of Barbary. Ziziphus spina- 
Christi and Paliurus aculeatus, prickly shrubs 
common in the East, are severally believed by 
many persons to have furnished our Blessed 
Saviour's cro^ra of thorns. Only two plants of 
this order are indigenous to Britain, and belong to 
the genus Rhamnus ; their berries are medicinal, 
but too violent in their effects to be used ^^ith 
safety. 

* See Tennyson'-s beautiful poem ''The Lotus-eaters." The Eg^-p- 
tian lotus is a very different plant, being a species of water-lily, 
Kyraphcea Lotus. 



XXXVlll 



INTRODUCTION. 



ROSACEA. 

ROSE TRIBE. 

This extensive order, ^yhicll comprises nearly 
all the fruit-trees of the temperate regions which 
are valuable to man, has been subdi^-ided by 
modern botanists into Drupaceae, Pomaceae, San- 
guisorbaceas, and Rosaceas. The plants of all 
these sub-orders or groups are marked by bearing 
an indefinite number of stamens on the calyx and 
agree in some other particulars. 



Drupace.e. 

cherry group. 

The plants of this group are distinguished by 
bearing what is technically called a drupe, that is, 
a fleshy or pulpy fruit enclosing a hard stone, and 
by the presence of prussic acid in their leaves and 
kernel. They are natives exclusively of the cold 
and temperate climates of the northern hemi- 
sphere, but in a cultivated state are diffused 
throughout most parts of the world. The poison- 
ous properties of prussic acid are too well known 
to require any notice : yet, notwithstanding the 
presence of this destructive principle in the leaves 
and other parts of the trees belonging to this 
group, the fruit is with very few exceptions 
harmless, or even a nourishing food. The sub- 
order includes the Almond, Peach, Nectarine, 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxxix 



Apricot, all the varieties of Plum, Cherry^ and 
Laurel. Of these the last alone bears poisonous 
fruit. The trees of this group which are natural 
to Britain, or have been introduced, will be de- 
scribed as belonging to the genus Prunus, though 
classed by some botanists partly under Prunus 
and partly under Cerasus. 




LEAF AND FRUIT OF THE WILD CHERRY. 



xl 



INTRODUCTION. 




PRUIT OF THE MOUNTAIN ASH. 



Pomace.^. 

apple group. 

About two hundred species are included in this 
group, which consists entirely of trees and shrubs. 
They are natives of the more temperate regions of 
the northern hemisphere^ but some of them have 



INTRODUCTION. xli 

accompanied man in his migrations to regions 
most remote from their native soil. The varieties 
of Apple and Pear which have been produced by 
cultivation are beyond the power of calculation. 
These two are most valued for their fruit. Other 
British trees belonging to the group are the 
"Whitebeam, Mountain Ash, Service, and Haw- 
thorn, all more or less valuable for their beauty 
or the uses to which their timber may be ap- 
pHed. Malic acid is contained in considerable 
quantities in apples, and yet more abundantly in 
the berries of the Mountain Ash. The flow^ers, 
bark, and root of the last-named tree yield also 
a large quantity of prussic acid. 



TAMARISCINEiE. 

TAMARISK TRIBE, 

A small order, comprising bushy trees with rod- 
like branches and a light feathery spray, no part 
of the leaf being expanded into a plate, but the 
foliage consisting entirely of scales, which are 
closely pressed to the stem. Hence the trees of 
this order are eminently adapted for growing in 
exposed situations, w^here indeed they are usually 
found. The majority grow by the sea side, others 
are found by the banks of rivers and torrents, or 
in arid districts where the soil is impregnated w^ith 
salt. In Arabia, one species {Tamarix manmfera) 
has its branches invested with a sweet mucilaginous 
substance, which is collected by the monks of 
Mount Sinai, and sold as a substitute for sugar. 



xlii 



INTRODUCTION. 



Other species are remarkable for the large 
quantity of sulphate of soda which their ashes 
contain. The only British species is Tamarix 
Gallica. 




TAMARISK. 



INTRODUCTION. 



xliii 




IVY. 



ARALIACE.E. 

IVY TRIBE. 

This order derives its name from the Aralia^ or 
Angelica -tree^ a prickly shrub introduced into 
our gardens from Carolina and Yirginia. A 
species of Panax, -^vhich furnishes the famous 
ginseng of China, is a native of Chinese Tartary, 
^vhere it has heen gathered as an invaluable drug 
from time immemorial. In 1709 the Emperor 
of China gave orders to 10,000 Tartars to go in 



xliv 



INTRODUCTION. 



quest of the root^ and to bring as much as they 
could find : every one was to give two pounds 
of the best to the Emperor, and to sell the rest 
for the same weight of fine silver. The roots, 
which are said to bear some resemblance to the 
human form, are gathered and dried, and enter 
into almost every medicine used by the Chinese 
and Tartars. Osbeck says that he never looked 
into the apothecaries' shops, but they were al- 
ways selling ginseng ; that both poor people 
and those of the highest rank made use of it, 
and that they boil half an ounce in their tea or 
soup every morning as a remedy for consump- 
tion and other diseases. Jartoux relates that 
the most eminent physicians of China have 
written volumes on the medicinal powers of 
this plant, asserting that it gives immediate re- 
lief in almost every kind of disorder. European 
physicians, however, seem to doubt its efficacy, 
at least in this climate. A remarkable plant 
belonging to this order is Gunnera scahra, found 
by Darwin, growing on the sand-stone clifi' of 
Chiloe. He describes it as somewhat resembling 
rhubarb on a gigantic scale, each plant pro- 
ducing four or five leaves nearly eight feet in 
diameter. Of the genus Hedera (Ivy), fifty- 
two species are eniunerated by Don, but many 
of these are referred by other authors to Aralia, 
&c. The Ivies are either climbing shrubs, like 
our own familiar plant, or grow to the height 
of fifty feet vithout support. The only British 
plant besides Ivy belonging to this order is the 
Moschatell {Adoxa MoschatcUina), a humble 
plant which appears early in spring, on shady 
moist banks, and may be distmguished by its 



INTRODUCTION. 



xlv 



delicate foliage, and globular heads of pale green 
flowers, the whole plant having a strong smell 
of musk, whence it derives its name. 




THE MOSCHATELL. 



xlvi 



INTRODUCTION. 




CORNEL-TREE. 



CORNER. 

CORNEL TRIBE. 

A small order, containing few plants of in- 
terest, among which the most remarkable is the 
Cornel-tree, to be described hereafter. In the 
United States several species are found, the bark 
of which is a powerful tonic, ranking in utility 



INTRODUCTION. 



xlvii 



next to Peruvian bark. Benthamia fragtfera, a 
handsome shrub from the mountains of Nepal, was 
introduced into England in 1825. In Cornwall, 
where it was first raised from seed, it flowers and 
bears fruit freely, and forms a pleasing addition 
to the shrubbery. Two species of Cornus are 
indigenous to Britain : one, C sangidnea, a shrub, 
distinguished by its blood-red twigs ; the other, 
C. Suecica, a herbaceous plant growing in the 
mountainous parts of England and Scotland, the 
berries of which are said to increase the appe- 
tite, whence its Highland name, Lus-a-chrasis^ or, 
plant of gluttony. The Cornus of the ancients 
was the present Cornelian cherry, Cornus mascula, 
whose little clusters of yellow starry flowers are 
among the earliest heralds of spring. Its fruit is 
like a small plum, with a very austere flesh, but 
after keeping it becomes sub -acid. The Turks 
still use it in the manufacture of sherbet. A 
similar species is commonly cultivated in Japan 
for the sake of its fruit, which is a constant 
ingredient in the fever drinks of the country. 



CAPRIFOLIACE^. 

WOODBINE TRIBE. 

In this order are associated a number of plants 
very unequal in size, and perhaps too dissimilar 
in structure ; for here, with the Elder, Wood- 
bine, Guelder Rose, and Wayfaring Tree, we 
find the elegant Linnaea, the little northern 
plant, long overlooked, depressed, abject, flower- 



xlviil INTRODUCTION. 

ing early," which. Linnaeus himself selected as 
therefore most appropriate to transmit his name 
to posterity. Most of the plants of this or- 
der are confined to the temperate regions of 




the northern hemisphere. The roasted berries 
of Triosteum perfoliatum have been used as a 
substitute for coffee. Leycesteria formosa, a 
beautiful shrub from the mountains of Nepal, 



INTRODUCTION. xlix 

where it flowers at an elevation of from 6000 
to 8000 feet, is now becoming a common orna- 
ment in our gardens. It is most attractive when 




HONEYSUCKLE OR WOODBINE. 



in a flowering state, from the contrast of the 
deep green hue of its stem and leaves with the 
purple colour of its floral leaves and berries. 
The name of the order is from Lonicera Capri- 
folium, a species of Honeysuckle or Woodbine. 



I 



INTRODUCTION. 




HOLLYWORTS. 



The only European plant belonging to this i 
order is the Holly ; but in North and South I 
America^ the West Indies, and South Africa, 
other species occur, all of which agree in being 
evergreens, and in presenting a structure of 
flower and fruit more or less resembling that 
of our Holly. The most famous of all is the 
Paraguay Holly, which furnishes the mate so 



INTRODUCTION. 



li 



extensively used in South America, an account 
of which will be given hereafter. The bark and 
berries of some species are highly astringent, 
and valuable as medicines. An infusion of Ilex 
vomitoria is used by some of the southern tribes 
of American Indians at the opening of their 
councils, to produce the effect indicated by the 
name. After having indulged in this strange 
ceremony for two or three successive days, the 
senators proceed to their deliberations. Several 
other species are used as tea. 



lii 



INTRODUCTION, 




OLIVE BRANCH. 

OLEACE^. 

Olive tribe. 

In this order are assembled a variety of trees 
and shrubs, which the mere casual observer would 
perhaps think very ill assorted, as the Olive, Ash, 



INTRODUCTION. 



liii 



and Lilac. Twenty-six species of Olive are enu- 
merated by Don (^^ Gardener's Dictionary"), of 
which only one, Olea satwa, is cultivated for 
the oil which it affords. It is said to have come 
originally from Asia, and grows abundantly about 
Aleppo and Lebanon. It is also naturalized in 
the south of France, in Italy, and in Spain. The 
Olive is remarkable for the very great age w^hich 
it attains ; some plantations in Italy are supposed 
to have been in existence in the time of Pliny, 
eighteen centuries since. It is an evergreen 
tree, but seldom exceeds thirty feet in height. 
Its productiveness increases with its age : a 
modern authoress mentions a tree near Gere- 
comio, which yielded 240 quarts of oil in one 
season, yet its trunk was quite hollow, and its 
empty shell seemed to have barely enough hold 
in the ground to secure it against mountain storms. 
The Olive flourishes best on limestone soils, and 
in the vicinity of the sea. The fruit is an ob- 
long stone enclosed in a fleshy pulp, ripening 
in November, when it is of a reddish-purple 
colour. As soon as gathered, it is placed in a 
mill, so contrived as to separate the fleshy part 
without breaking the stones. The pulp thus pre- 
pared is put into bags made of rushes, and sub- 
mitted to a gentle pressure ; the liquid w^hich 
flows off* is pure oil of the best quality. The 
residue is then beaten up and moistened with 
water, and returned to the press ; upon which there 
flows out oil of an inferior quality, mixed with 
water. What remains after this process is again 
mixed with water, and set to ferment, after which 
it is again pressed, and a coarser oil is produced, 
valuable principally to the soap-boiler. With us, 



INTRODUCTION. 



oil is not mucli used as food : but in Italy and 
Spain it takes the place of butter and cream. 
Sir Francis Head relates that an English com- 
pany was formed to supply the Spanish popula- 
tion of Buenos Ayres with butter; but when 
everything seemed to favour the scheme, the 
speculators were thwarted by the discovery that 
oil was infinitely preferred. Numerous passages 
in the Scriptures, in which mention of oil occurs 
in connection with corn and wine, prove that it 
was a staple article of food in the East from the 
remotest antiquity. Then, too, as now, it was 
extensively used in medicine and surgery, and 
among all civilised nations of the eastern con- 
tinent the Olive has been regarded as the emblem 
of peace. So highly did the Greeks value it, 
that they ascribed its production to the tutelary 
goddess of Athens, and pointed to the identical 
tree which, as they pretended, sprung from the 
ground at her bidding; and Pliny, the Roman 
naturalist, pronounces it to be of greater value 
than the vine. Pickled Olives are prepared from 
unripe fruit, by soaking them in water, and then 
bottling them in salt and water. It is singular, 
that Evelyn, who could not have been aware of 
the fact that the Olive and the Ash were kindred 
genera, recommends the seed-vessels of the latter 
tree to be treated similarly, for, being pickled 
tender," he says, they afford a delicate salad- 
ing." The custom of grafting the OHve, which, 
according to Pliny, was as well knovrn to the 
Romans in his day as it was when St. Paul ad- 
dressed his epistle to the same people, is now 
rarely if ever practised, it having been discovered 
that the tree may readily be propagated by cuttings 



INTRODUCTION. 



Iv 



or slices of the root. Many varieties of the Ohve 
have been produced by cultivation^ as in the 
Apple, Pear, and other valuable fruit-trees. The 
well-known ornamental shrub Lilac is a native of 
Persia, whence it was imported in the sixteenth 
century ; it is so called from lilac or lilag, the 
Persian name of the flower. Though now so 
plentiful as to have given name to a colour, in the 
year 1597 it was a great rarity. It possesses me- 
dicinal virtues, and it is stated on good authority, 
that, in a part of the province of Berri, which is 
marshy and exceedingly unwholesome, the pea- 
sants employ no other remedy for the intermittent 
fever which prevails there. Of the Ash, Don 
enumerates thirty-seven species, of which one 
only is a native of Britain. The allied genus 
Ornus, or Flowering Ash, contains several species 
which afford the substance called manna, of which 
more hereafter. Privet, a common hedge shrub, 
also belongs to this order. Dissimilar as many of 
these plants may appear, it is remarkable that 
they will all graft on one another, a fact which 
demonstrates the analogy of their juices and fibres. 
Thus, not only will the Olive graft on the Wild 
Olive, but on the Ash, and the Lilac will take 
on the same tree ; so that it is not beyond the 
skill of the gardener to produce a tree with the 
trunk of an Ash, bearing from the same root 
branches of Olive, Lilac, Privet, and PhvUirea, 
&c. 



Ivi 



INTRODUCTION. 




LEAF AND BLOSSOM OF ORIENTAL PLANE. 

PLATANACE^. 

Plane tribe. 

This order is ^nown in England by two noble 
timber trees, which are natives respectively of 
the eastern parts of Europe and of North 
America. The Oriental Plane has ever been a 
favourite tree in the countries which it in- 
habits ; and the Occidental Plane is highly prized 
even in its native land of forests. Both species 
are frequently to be met with in English parks 



INTRODUCTION. 



Ivii 



and plantations ; but the other two or three 
species which constitute the genus and order 
require no further notice. 



EUPHORBIACEiE. 

Spurge Tribe. 

A large order^ containing nearly 200 genera 
and 2500 species^ distributed over most of the 
tropical and temperate regions of the globe, 
especially the warmer parts of America. They 
are either trees, shrubs, or herbs, and some kinds 
have the external habit of the cactus tribe. 
Among so numerous an assemblage of plants, 
we should expect to find a great dissimilarity 
of properties, which, indeed, exists to a certain 
extent ; yet nearly all agree in being furnished 
with a juice, often milky, which is highly acrid, 
narcotic, or corrosive, the intensity of the poisonous 
property being usually proportionate to the abun- 
dance of the juice. Of the genus EupJiorhia^ 
Spurge, which gives name to the order, ten or 
tw:elve species are natives of Britain, The British 
Spurges are all herbaceous, and remarkable for the 
singular structure of their green flowers, and their 
acrid milky juice, which exudes plentifully when 
either the stems or leaves are wounded. A small 
quantity of this placed upon the tongue pro- 
duces a burning heat in the mouth and throat, 
which continues for many hours. The unplea- 
sant sensation may be allayed by frequent 
draughts of milk. The roots of several of the 



Iviii 



INTRODUCTION. 



common kinds enter into the composition of some 
of the quack fever medicines ; but they are too 

violent in their action 
to be used with safety. 
The Irish Spurge is 
extensively used by the 
peasants of Kerry for 
poisoning, or rather 
stupifying, fish. So 
powerful are its ef- 
fects^ that a small creel 
or basket filled mth 
the bruised plaint suf- 
fices to poison the fish 
for several miles down 
a river. Euphorbia 
Ldthyris is sometimes, 
though erroneously, 
called in England the 
caper-plant. Its un- 
ripe seeds are pickled, 
and form a dangerous 
substitute for genuine 
capers, which are the 
unexpanded fiower- 
buds of Capparis spi^ 
nosa^ a shrub indige- 
nous to the most sou- 
thern countries of 
Europe. Among the 
foreign Spurges, some 
species furnish both 
the African and Ameri- 
spRiG OF BOX. ^^^^ savages with a 

deadly poison for their arrows. Another, called 




INTRODUCTION. 



lix 



in India Tirucalli, furnishes an acrid juice, which 
is used in its fresh state for raising blisters. Other 




EUPHORBIA AMYGDALOIDES. 

kinds are used in various parts of the world as 
medicines, but require to be administered with 
caution. The gum resin, Euphorbium, of che- 
mists, is procured from three species growing in 
Africa and the Canaries, by wounding the sterns^ 



Ix 



INTRODUCTION. 



and collecting in leathern bags the sap which 
exudes. It is an acrid poison, highly inflam- i 
mable, and so violent in its effects, as to pro- i 
duce severe inflammation of the nostrils, if those 
who are employed in powdering it do not guard 
themselves from its dust. Pliny relates that 
the plant was discovered by King Juba, and 
named by him after his physician, Euphorbus. 
The Manchineel tree (Hippomane Mancinelld) is 
said to be so poisonous, that persons have died 
from merely sleeping beneath its shade. Its 
juice is pure white, and a single drop of it fall- 
ing upon the skin burns like fire, forming an 
ulcer often difiicult to heal. The fruit, which is 
beautiful and looks like an apple, contains a 
similar fluid, but in a milder form ; the burning 
which it causes in the lips of those who bite it 
guards the careless from the danger of eating it. 
Jatropha Maiiikot, or Manioc, is a shrub about 
six feet high, indigenous to the West Indies and 
South America, abounding in a milky juice of so 
poisonous a nature, that it has been known to 
occasion death in a few minutes. The poisonous 
principle, however, may be dissipated by heat, 
after which process the root may be converted 
into the most nourishing food. It is grated 
into a pulp, and subjected to a heavy pressure 
until all the juice is expressed. The residue, 
called cassava, requires no further preparation, 
being simply baked in the form of thin cakes on 
a hot iron hearth. This bread is so palatable to 
those who are accustomed to it, as to be preferred 
to that made from wheaten flour ; and Creole . 
families, who have changed their residence to 
Europe, frequently supply themselves with it at 



INTRODUCTION. 



Ixi 



some trouble and expense. The fresh juice is 
highly poisonous ; but, if boiled with meat and 




JATROPHA MANIHOT. 



seasoned, it makes an excellent soup, which is 
wholesome and nutritious. The heat of the sun 
even is sufficient to dissipate the noxious pro- 



Ixii 



INTRODUCTION. 



perties, for, if it be sliced and exposed for some 
hours to the direct rays of the sun, cattle may 
eat it with perfect safety. The roots are some- 
times eaten by the Indians, sunply roasted with- 
out being previously submitted to the process of 
grating and expressing the juice. They also use 
the juice for poisoning their arrows, and w^ere 
acquainted with the art of converting it into an 
intoxicating liquid before they were visited by 
Europeans. By washing the pulp in water and 
suffering the latter to stand, a sediment of starch 
is produced, which, under the name of tapioca, 
is extensively imported into Europe, where it is 
used for all the purposes to which arrow-root 
and sago are applied. It is light, digestible, and 
nourishing, so much so, indeed, that half a pound 
a day is said to be sufficient to support a healthy 
man. The meal or flour called farina is a pre- 
paration of the same root. Caoutchouc, or India- 
rubber, is a w^ell-known elastic gum, furnished 
in greater or less abundance by many plants of 
this order, but especially by a South American 
tree SipJionia or Hevea elastica. In order to 
obtain it, the natives puncture the trees in the 
rainy season, upon which a thick juice of a yel- 
lowish colour exudes, which becomes darker by 
exposure to the air. If kept in well closed bot- 
tles, it will retain its fluidity for a considerable 
time ; but, if heated or exposed to the air in thin 
films, its moisture evaporates, and it quickly as- 
sumes the form under w^hich we are acquainted 
with it. By the Indians of South America it 
is applied in successive layers to models of clay, 
and dried in the smoke of a fire, until it has 
acquired the requisite thickness ; the clay is 



INTRODUCTION. 



Ixiii 



then crushed and shaken out. They make boots 
of it which water cannot penetrate, and which, 
when smoked, have the appearance of real leather. 
Bottles are also made of it, to the necks of which 
are fastened hollow reeds, so that the liquor con- 
tained in them may be violently forced out by 
pressure. One of these filled with water is al- 
ways presented to each of the guests at their 
entertainments, w^ho never fails to make use of 
it by forcing the water into his mouth before 
eating. Hence the tree which produces the gum 
is sometimes called the Syringe-tree. Caout- 
chouc is soluble in ether, and in the essential oils 
of turpentine and lavender ; and even, if boiled 
for a quarter of an hour in w^ater, it may be so 
far dissolved, that the edges will finnly unite. 
If a bottle be soaked in sulphuric ether until 
quite soft, it may be inflated until it becomes so 
thin as to be transparent, and sufficiently light 
to ascend when filled with hydrogen gas. Water- 
proof cloth is manufactured in Europe by dis- 
solving it in the oil distilled from gas-tar, and 
spreading the mixture on the surface of a piece 
of cloth, upon which a similar piece is then ex- 
tended, and the whole passed between a pair of 
rollers. The largest India-rubber trees grow on 
the banks of the river Amazon, where they attain 
a great height, being at the same time perfectly 
straight, and bearing no branches except at the 
top, which is but small, covering no more than 
a circumference of ten feet. The leaves are 
large, tough, and leathery, green above, and 
whitish beneath. The seeds contain a thick oil, 
which answers the purpose of butter in the 
cookery of the country. The fragrant aromatic 



Ixiv 



INTRODUCTION. 



bark called cascarilla is produced by a shrub be- 
longing to this order, Croton Eleutheria, a native 
of the Bahamas, and by other species of Croton 
indigenous to the West Indies and South Ame- 
rica, Croton oil is the product of Croton Tiglium, 
and is so violent a medicine, as to be rarely ad- 
ministered until all other remedies have failed. 
Castor-oil is expressed from the seeds of Ricinus 
communis, an African tree, frequently to be met 
with in English gardens under the name of Palma 
Chris ti, where, however, it only attains the rank 
of an annual herbaceous plant. The Box is the 
only British tree belonging to this order, of the 
poisonous properties of which it partakes, though 
to a limited extent. In some parts of Persia it 
is very abundant; and in these districts it is 
found impossible to keep camels, as the animals 
are very fond of browsing on the leaves, which 
kill them. The Dog-Mercury {Mercurialis per- 
ennis) is an herbaceous plant, common in our 
woods, and an active poison ; another species, M. 
annua, is less frequently met with, and though 
poisonous, is not so virulent as the other species. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Ixv 




LEAF AND BLOSSOM OF THE ELM. 



ULMACE.E. 

Elm tribe. 

An order composed of trees and shrubs wliich in- 
habit the temperate parts of Asia^ North America, 
and Europe, and are often valuable timber trees. 
The Elm is the onh' British genus, which ^^dll be 
described hereafter. 

e 



Ixvi 



IXTRODUCTIOX. 




LEAF AXD BLOSSOM OF THE WALNUT. 

JUG-LANDACE.E. 

"Wal^^ut tribe. 

The Walnut is the only tree belonging to this 
order with which we are familiar in England- 
It is a native of Persia and Cashmere^ whence it 
was probably introduced before the beginning 
of the sixteenth century. Of the Hickory -tree 
there are many species, all natives of North 
America, where they are greatly valued for their 
nuts, as well as for their timber, which is of 
great weight, strength, and tenacity. It is used 
for various purposes, especially for cask-hoops 



INTRODUCTION, 



Ixvii 



and the rings by which the sails of vessels are 
attached to the mast. "When burnt, it consumes 
slowly, and gives out a great heat ; hence it is 
considered the best wood for fuel. The various 
kinds of Hickory timber, when stripped of their 
bark, are said to be so much alike, as not to be 
distinguished by the most practised eye. The 
structure of the nut closely resembles that of the 
Walnut, but it is not deeply furrowed like the 
fruit of the latter tree. Engelhardtkt spicata, a 
Java tree, attaining a height of 290 feet, is used 
for cart-wheels, which are cut out of a single hori- 
zontal block. Most of the trees of this order 
abound in a watery resinous juice. 



AMEXTACE^. 

Amentaceous tribe. 

This order derives its name from amentum^ a 
catkin, the term used by botanists to designate the 
form of inflorescence when a number of flowers 
destitute of calyx and corolla are arranged along a 
common stalk, which falls off in one piece, either 
after flowering or after the ripening of the fruit. 
The plants of which this important order is com- 
posed agree in bearing their flowers in catkins, 
but nevertheless differ so materially in other 
respects, that they have been subdivided into dis- 
tinct sub-orders or groups. Of these some con- 
tain no British genera : those in which indigenous 
examples occur, are — 



Ixviii 



INTRODUCTION. 




BLOSSOM OF THE ALDER. 



Betulace.e. 
Birch group. 

containing only Betida, the Birch ; and Ahius, 
the Alder : 



INTRODUCTION. 



Ixix 




BLOSSOM OF THE CRACK WILLOW. 



Salicace.e. 

Willow group. 

comprising Salix, the Willow ; and Popidus^ the 
Poplar. 



Ixx INTRODUCTIOX. 




cHESTxrr. 



CUPULIFER.£. ryr CoRYLACE.E. 

]^Iast-bearixg group. 

Tliis last division is tlie lai'gest and most import- 
ant^ and is well-known in Britain by Car^inus. 



INTRODUCTION. Ixxi 

the Hornbeam ; Corylus, the Hazel ; Fagus, the 
Beech ; Castanea, the Chestnut ; and Quercus, 
the Oak. The most remarkable species belong- 
ing to these several genera will be noticed under 
their respective heads. 




BEECH-MAST. 



Ixxii 



introduction; 




CONIFERS. 
Fir tribe. 

This order derives it name from the peculiar 
kind of seed-vessel, called a cone/' produced 
by the Fir and other allied genera. The Fir- 
tribe are distinguished by this character, by their 
needle-like leaves, by the vessels of their wood 
being perforated v^ith numerous dots, and the ap- 
parently imperfect structure of the pistil in the 



INTRODUCTION. 



Ixxiii 



fertile flower. No order can be named of more 
universal importance to mankind than this, whe- 
ther we view it with reference to its timber or its 
secretions. Gigantic in size, rapid in growth, 
noble in aspect, robust in constitution, these 
trees form a considerable portion of woods or 
plantations in cultivated countries, and of forests 
in temperate countries vrhere Nature remains in 
a savage state. Their timber, in commerce, is 
know^n under the names of deal, fir, pine, and cedar, 
and is principally the wood of the Spruce, the 
Larch, the Scotch Fir, the Weymouth Pine, and 
the Virginian Cedar : but others are of at least 
equal, if not greater value. Finns palustris is 
the Virginian Pine, so la^rgely employed in the 
navy for masts. The gates of Constantinople, 
famous for having stood from the time of Con- 
stantino to that of Pope Eugene IV., a period of 
eleven hundred years, were of Cypress. The 
Norfolk Island Pine (^Araiicaria excelsa) and the 
Kaurie tree of New^ Zealand attain the height of 
200 feet, and the latter yields an invaluable, light, 
compact wood, free from knots, from wdiich the 
finest masts in the navy are now prepared. But 
they are both surpassed by the stupendous Pines 
of northwest America, one of which, Pimis Lam- 
bertiana, is reported to attain the height of 230 
feet ; and another, Abies Douglasii, to equal or 
even to exceed it," {Lindley,) Great though 
their value be as timber, they are yet more valu- 
able for their copious secretion of substances 
useful in the arts and sciences. Pitch, tar, 
turpentine, resin. Burgundy pitch, Hungarian 
balsam, Canada balsam, &c., are furnished by some 
one or more of these trees ; and the seeds of the 



Ixxiv 



IXTRODUCTION. 



larofer kinds are edible and nourishino-. The 
Scotcli Fir is a British example of this order. 
The Jimiper, the berry-like cones of -which are 
used for flavoiuing hoUands, extends over the 
greater part of Europe and North America, and 
is likevdse found in some of the mountainous 
parts of Asia. 




JL'NIPER. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Ixxv 




TAXACE^. 

Yew tribe. 

This order^ which derives its name from Taxus^ 
the Yew, is by some botanists united with the 
preceding, which it resembles in most respects, 
except the structure of its fruit, and its re- 
peatedly divided branches. Occasionally, also, 



Ixxvi 



INTRODUCTION. 



the leaves expand^ and form veins^ as in the 
Salishuria, The only species belonging to this 
order found in Em^ope is the Common Yew. 
Other species occur in the milder climates of a 
great part of the world, and mthin the Tropics 
seek a congenial climate high up in the moun- 
tains. Some of them are valuable as timber 
trees ; and one, Dacridium taxifolium, a New 
Zealand tree, attains a height of 200 feet. They 
are resinous, like the Fir Tribe, and, with the 
exception of the Common Yew, are harmless. 



THE 

FOREST TREES OF BRITAIN. 



THE OAK. 

QuERCUs RoBUR— QuERcus Sessiliflora. 

Natural Order — Amentace^. 
Class — MoNCEciA. Order — Pol yand ria. 

As long as the Lion holds his place as king 
of beasts^ and the Eagle as king of birds^ the 
sovereignty of British Trees must remain to the 
Oak. Within the tropics, where Nature per- 
forms all her works on a scale of magnificence 
unrivalled elsewhere, the stately Palm, uplifting 
its leafy canopy on a shaft two hundred feet in 
height ; the Banyan, forming with its countless 
trunks a forest in itself ; the Baobab, a tree ve- 
nerable four thousand years ago : each of these 
may assert its claim to the kingly title. But in 
England, the country of green fields, in w^hich 
men labour among their oxen and their sheep ; of 
lordly parks, with their broad smooth la\vns and 
clustering trees ; of narrow church-paths winding 
along by the side of brilliant streamlets, across 
flowery meadows and through w^oods off'ering a 
* B 



6 



THE OAK. 



shade from the heat, and a shelter from the 
storm, here the Oak reigns paramount. In truth 
he is a kingly tree, the emblem of majesty, 
strength, and durabihty. To what remote ages 
are we carried back — to what yarpng scenes are 
we introduced, when we search for the first ap- 
pearance of this patriarch in the pages of history ! 
Under the oaks of Mamre,* according to Jewish 
traditions, the father of the faitliful reared his 
tabernacle, and meditated on another, that is a 
heayenly, country, which God had prepared for 
him. One of these yery trees was long looked 
upon with yeneration by the Israelites, and (ac- 
cording to St. Jerome) was in existence in the 
reign of the Emperor Constantine, two thousand 
years afterwards. f 

Near Shechem there stood also a tree of the 
same species, which probably was remarkable for 
its size, being called in Genesis xxxy. 4, The 
Oak which was by Shechem." Thus early, too, 
does it appear to have been marked with some 

* It should be home in mind that the Oak of the Holy Scriptures 
is not identical with the British Oak, but, as will be seen hereafter, 
is either the Evergreen Oak ( Quercus ilex), or neariy resembles it. 
Celsius and other writers after him are of opinion that the tree alluded 
to is the Terebinth, or Turpentine-tree. It is difficult, however, for 
the reader of the English version of the Bible to connect the name 
with any other notion than that of a tree agreeing closely in character 
with the Oak of his own country. Whatever may be the botanical 
diiference between the two, it is still '"' tlte Oak" of Palestine as much 
as Quercus rohur is " the Oak" of Britain. 

Mature is remarkable in Sacred History for Abraham's enter- 
taining there three angels under an Oak, which Oak also became very 
famous in after ages ; insomuch that superstitious worship was per- 
formed there. This the great Constantine. esteemed the first Chris- 
tian emperor of Rome, put a stop to by a letter va'itten to Eusebius, 
bishop of Cesarea, in Palestine, for that purpose. — Hemi?ig's Scripture 
Geography. 



THE OAK. 



7 



peculiar sacredness^ for it was chosen as a meet 
shelter for the grave of Deborah, Rebekah's 
nurse (verse 8th) ; the particular tree being after- 
wards distinguished by a set name, AUon-bac- 
huth/' or, the Oak of Weeping.* 

It is here worthy of notice that in Genesis xii. 
6, the passage vrhich is in our version rendered 

The plain of Moreh," is in the Septuagint ren- 
dered The high Oak."f It is not, therefore, 
improbable that this Oak, or grove of Oaks, was 
first consecrated to God by the priestly worsliip 
of Abraham, and retained its sacred character 
until at least the time of Abimelech. j It must 
not be objected that the period is too long (nearly 
six hundred years) to assign as the duration of 
one tree ; for, as we shall see hereafter, there is 
evidence of Oak-trees actually existing which 
have attained nearly double that age. 

In our o\\Ti country we well know that any 
building or tree connected with the history of a 
person of note, who lived in remote ages, is re- 
garded with universal interest. Who, for exam- 
ple, has not heard and thought of Shakspeare's 
Mulberry-tree, and Charles the Second's Oak ? 
Probably, then, the Israelites, on their restoration 
to the land of Canaan, regarded with much the 

* The difficulty of identifying the plants mentioned in the sacred 
volume appears to be increased in the present instance by the simi- 
larity of the names ela.li and alloii. In Genesis xxxv. both words 
occur, and are rendered in our version ''the Oak.'' In Isaiah vi. 13, 
they occur in juxtaposition : in this passage Coverdale translates elah 
"the Terebinth," allon "the Oak," the authorized version giving 
elah "the Teil-tree;" allon " the Oak." Canon Rogers is of opinion 
that allon should ahvays be thus rendered. 

•j" T/;v %ov'j r'Av v'^YikyiV, 

X Judges ix. 6, marginal reading. 



8 



THE OAK, 



same feelings the Oak which was by Shechem/' 
as connecting their own history what God 

had done for their forefathers before the capti\ity 
in Egypt ; more particularly as the Patriarchs, in 
token of their faith, had not erected for them- 
selves permanent habitations, but dwelt in tents, 
of which no vestige could well remain. How 
probable is it that the pious Israelites resorted to 
this tree to talk over among themselves, and to 
repeat to their children, the incidents of their 
perilous wanderings in the wilderness, and the 
wonders which the Lord had wrought for them ! 

And what tree could Joshua have had greater 
reason to choose than this, when he gathered all 
the tribes of Israel at Shechem," and set up 
there under an Oak" a stone intended to comme- 
morate the solemn renewal of their allegiance to 
God ? These pious motives did not, however, 
long continue in operation. Scarcely were the 
elders dead who had '^outhved Joshua, and had 
known all the works of the Lord that He had 
done for Israel," when the groves v/ere resorted 
to for the worship of false gods: under every 
green tree, and under every thick Oak, they 
did offer sweet savour to all their idols ;" they 
•^burnt incense upon the hills under Oaks," choos- 
ing the wood of the Cypress and Oak to make 
a god." 

^^Itis natural," says Evelyn, ^^for man to feel 
an awful and religious terror when placed in the 
centre of a thick wood ; on which account, in all 
ages, such places have been chosen for the cele- 
bration of religious ceremonies." But, to trace 
by what degrees this pious feeling degenerated 
into dangerous superstition belongs rather to the 



THE OAK. 



9 



historian of men than of trees : I will not, there- 
fore, pursue the subject any further. 

In European countries the Oak was an im- 
portant tree at a very early age, being valued for 
its fruit. In Asia the estimation in which it was 
held appears to have had some other origin, for, 
although we read in the Sacred Volume of dates, 
almonds," &c., being used as articles of food, no 
such mention is made of acorns ; nor is it proba- 
ble that they were ever eaten by men in a country 
naturally affording fruits so much more palatable. 
But in Greece and Italy, before agriculture was 
invented or introduced, acorns held an important 
place among the more savoury viands of the in- 
habitants. The traditions of the poets tell us that 
strawberries, blackberries, cornels, and acorns, 
were the homely fare of the first inhabitants of 
these countries ; of which, acorns must have been 
the most valuable, for being of a less perishable 
nature than the rest, they would bear being stored 
away for winter use. For this reason, perhaps, 
it was that the Greeks believed that, of all the 
trees with which they were acquainted, the Oak 
was the first created. We need not, then, won- 
der that, holding this belief in its antiquity and 
extreme usefulness, they regarded it with venera- 
tion, and, in their ignorance of Divine Revelation, 
entertained the, to us extravagant, notion that the 
Deity chose it as a medium for making known his 
will to man. At the same time it is much to 
be wondered at that the Israelites, who had not 
the excuse of ignorance, should have fallen into 
nearly the same fatal error, and that too with 
respect to the very same tree. The Oak grove at 
Dodona in Epirus was long resorted to by the 



10 



THE OAK. 



inhabitants of the whole of Greece when they 
wished to inquire the will of their imaginary 
god, Jupiter ; and we have seen that the Israel- 
ites resorted to the Oak woods of Palestine with 
a similar object. 

Let us take warning from their example, and 
be careful that, with whatsoever reverence we 
approach the works of Nature, we forget not 
that they are the works of the God of Nature ; 
and that they were planted by Him that ^^we 
may see and know, and consider, and understand 
together that the hand of, the Lord hath done 
this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it." 

Baal, the false god of the Canaanites, is con- 
sidered by learned men to be identical ^^'ith the 
Roman Saturn, the Celtic Yiaoul, and the British 
Yule, whose festival was kept at the time when 
we celebrate Christmas. (You see how we are 
entangled in this melancholy maze of eiTors.) 
By one of these nations this na7ne was worshipped 
as significant of the god of fire ; by another it 
was identified with the sun ; by another vene- 
rated under the fonn of an Oak. Its priests, 
who were called Druids," professed to maintain 
perpetual fire, and once every year all the fires 
belonging to the people were extinguished, and 
relighted from the sacred fire of the Druids. Tliis 
was the origin of the Yule-log, with which, even 
so lately as the commencement of the present 
century, the Christmas fire, in some parts of the 
country, was always kindled, and is even now 
in Devonshire and Yorkshire ; a fresh log being 
thrown on and lighted, but taken off* before it ■ 
was consumed, and reserved to kindle the Christ- 
mas fire of the following year. The Yule-log 



THE OAK. 



11 



was generally of Oak, though sometimes of Ash ; 
and as the ancient Britons believed that it was 
essential for their hearth-fires to be renewed every 
year from the sacred fire of the Druids, so their 
descendants thought that some misfortune would 
befal them if any accident happened to the Yule- 
log. The worship of the Druids was generally 
performed under an Oak; and a heap of stones 
was erected, on which the sacred fire was kindled, 
which was called a " cairn," as Professor Burnet 
says, from kern^ an acorn.* 

The Mistletoe was held in great reverence, and, 
as it was not commonly found on the Oak, solemn 
ceremonies attended the search for it. When all 
was prepared (the Mistletoe having been, no 
doubt, previously found by some of the assist- 
ants), the Druids went forth, clad in w^hite robes, 
to search for the sacred plant, and when it was 
discovered one of the Druids ascended the tree, 
and gathered it with great ceremony, separating 
it from the Oak with a golden knife. The Mistle- 
toe was always cut at a particular age of the 
moon, at the beginning of the year, and it was 
only sought for when the Druids pretended to 
have had visions directing them to seek it. When 
a great length of time elapsed without this hap- 
pening, or if the Mistletoe chanced to fall to the 
ground, it was considered as an omen that some 
great misfortune would befal the nation. 

The well-known chorus of Hey derry down," 
according to Professor Burnet, was a Druidic 
chant, signifying literally, In a circle the Oak 

* This etymology, however, is doubtful, and must be received with 
caution. Cairn usually signifies " a rock ; " the Hebrew Ji^ren has 
the same meaning. 



12 



THE OAK. 



move around." Criminals were tried under an 
Oak tree^ the judges being seated under the tree, 
and the culprit placed witliin a cii'cle made by the 
chief Druid's wand. The Saxons also held their 
national meetino^s uiider an Oak; and the cele- 
brated conference between the Saxons and the 
Britons, after the invasion of the former, was held 
under the Oaks of Dartmoor. The wood of the 
Oak was appropriated to the most memorable uses. 
King Arthur's round table was made of it, as was 
the cradle of Edward II., when he was born at 
Caernarvon Castle; this sacred wood being chosen 
in the hope of conciliating the feelings of the 
Welsh, who still retained the prejudices of their 
ancestors, the ancient Britons. It was considered 
unlucky to cut down any celebrated tree ; and 
Evelyn gravely relates a story of two men, who cut 
do^ra the Yicar's Oak, in Siu'rey ; one losing his 
eye, and the other breaking his leg, soon after. 

The Oaks of Dartmoor, in Devonshire, men- 
tioned in the above extract, have now nearly dis- 
appeared. In one spot only is there any vestige 
of what was once doubtless a favourite gathering- 
place of the Druids. This spot, called Wistman's 
AVood, is situated on Dartmoor, about a mile 
above Two-Bridges, on the left bank of the river. 
Imagine a mountain-stream creeping slowly among 
blocks of moss-stained granite ; on either side ex- 
tends a piece of flat boggy ground to an inconsi- 
derable distance ; and at the extremity of these 
the hills rise to the height of two or tlu^ee hun- 
dred feet, capped here and there in the distance 
with tors^ or rugged smnmits of granite. The 
hill side is confusedly heaped with blocks of the 
same stone, and it is in the interstices between 



14 



THE OAK. 



these that the trees composing "Wistman's Wood 
have chosen to fix their habitations — a colony of 
patriarchs in a wilderness. The wood itself forms 
a ragged and interrupted belt, of about half a mile 
in length, including some straggling trees, sepa- 
rated at long intervals. The best w^ay of ap- 
proaching it is from above, for by so doing one 
may without difficulty obtain a pretty good view 
of the whole at once, and plunge in among the 
trees at pleasure. The trees are all Oaks, from 
ten to fourteen feet high, gnarled, knotted, and 
t\\dsted even beyond the usual characteristic of 
that tree. The trunks vary from two to five feet 
in circumference. One which was measured con- 
sisted of three trunks, branched just above the 
base, each bole being about three feet in circum- 
ference. But by far the strangest pecuharity is, 
that all the branches, with the exception (and this 
not always) of the extreme spires, are matted with 
deep beds of moss, principally Anomodon curti- 
pendulum, in fine fructification. Some idea of 
the denseness of this extraordinary integument 
may be formed from the fact that the moss is, in 
most cases, from ten to twelve inches in thickness, 
when the diameter of the branch does not exceed 
an inch and a half. It seems very probable that 
the superincumbent weight may operate in pro- 
ducing the depressed character of growth: certain 
it is, that a single Holly-tree, near the centre of 
the wood, which is free from parasites, has at- 
tained the height of twenty feet, and towers above 
his pigmy companions, like some tall pine in a 
wood of ordinary growth. When first we saw tliis 
tree, indeed, having nothing to compare it with of 
definite size and shape but the suiTounding Oaks, 



THE OAK. 



15 



we fancied that it was a Fir-tree, and the Oaks 
borrow^ed from it, by comparison, a dignity not 
their own. On a rough guess, there are from 
300 to 500 veteran trees in the w^ood, and, 
as we were glad to find, a great number of 
saplings.* 

How heavily 
That old wood sleeps in the sunshine — not a leaf 
Is twinkling — not a wing is seen to move 
Within it ; but below, a mountain stream 
Conflicting with the rocks, is ever heard 
Cheering the drowsy noon. Thy guardian Oaks, 
My country, are thy boast — a giant race. 
And undegenerate still ; but of this grove, 
This pigmy grove, not one has climbed the air 
So emulously that its loftiest branch 
May brush the traveller's brow. The twisted roots 
Have clasped in search of nourishment the rocks, 
And straggled wide, and pierced the stony soil 
- In vain ; denied maternal succour, here 

A dwarfish race has risen. Round the boughs, 

Hoary and feeble, and around the trunks. 

With grasp destructive, feeding on the life 

That lingers yet, the ivy winds, and moss 

Of growth enormous. E'en the dull wild weed 

Has fix'd itself upon the very crown 

Of many an ancient Oak ; and thus, refused 

By Nature kindly aid, dishonoured, old, 

Dreary in aspect — silentlj^ decays 

The lonely wood of W^istman. 

Carrington's Dartmoor^ p. 56. 

The description of the Oaks in Wistman's Wood 
given above does not, however, at all accord with 
the usual character of the tree, which certainly is, 
under favourable circumstances, an apt emblem 
of stateliness, majesty, strength, and durability. 
Evelyn, after enumerating several remarkable 
trees, records of which have been transmitted to 

* This account of Wistman's Wood was written for a Botanical 
Journal, "The Phytologist," January 11th, 1845. 



16 



THE OAK. 



us^ says, What goodly trees were of old adored 
and consecrated by the Druids, I leave to conjec- 
ture from the stories of our ancient Britons, who, 
had they left records of their prodigies in this 
kind, would doubtless have furnished us with 
examples as remarkable for the growth and 
stature of trees as any which we have deduced 
from the writers of foreign countries ; since the 
remains of what are yet in being (notwithstanding 
the havoc which has universally been made, and 
the httle care to improve our woods), may stand 
in fair competition mth any thing that antiquity 
can produce." 

Tvvo species of Oak are indigenous to Britain, 
and they have been named by Botanists Quercus 
rohur, and Quercus sessilijlora. The name Quer- 
cus is derived from the Celtic quer,'' beautiful, 
and cuez, a tree. Rohur, according to some, is 
derived from the Latin rohur, strength ; but we 
may, with greater propriety, trace it to the Celtic 
rove^ another name for the Oak, whence the 
Latins obtained their name for the tree, and sub- 
sequently adopted the same word to express the 
abstract idea of strength,* The name Quercus 
rohur^ therefore, rendered into English, means, 
"the tree of beauty and strength." Quercus ses- 
silijlora is distinguished from the first species by 
having its fruit almost sessile, or sitting in groups 
on the leafy twig, without the intervention of any 
proper stalk ; whilst Quercus rohur, or Quercus 
pedunculata, as it is sometimes called, bears its 
fruit two or three together on a long peduncle, or 
fruit-stalk. But as this distinction is a modern 
one, and belongs rather to the naturalist than to 

In the north of Italy, the Oak is still called Rovore. 



THE OAK. 



17 



the poet or the historian^ the names Quercus 
rohur and Oak, when met with in English books 
not of a scientific character, must be understood 
to include both species. The word Oak is identi- 
cal with the Saxon aach or ak ; from which, also, 
acorn is derived. Hence Turner, the earliest 
English author on this subject, says ; Oke, whose 
finite we call an acorn or an eykorn (that is, 
corne or fruite of an Eike), are harde of digestion 
and norishe very much, but they make raw hu- 
mores. Wherefore we forbid the use of them for 
meates." 

But finally, not to weary you with etymologies, 
when you expected to read about trees and 
woods ; — from the Celtic derw, an Oak, the Druids 
took their name ; and hence, also, the Greeks 
called the tree drys, and gave the appellation of 
Dryads to the imaginary beings who peopled their 
w^oods. 

Like most long-lived trees, the Oak is of slow 
growth, averaging about a foot and a half in cir- 
cumference in twenty years, and increasing about 
one inch in a year for the next century of its ex- 
istence ; after which its rate of growth diminishes. 
The extreme slowness of this increase may be bet- 
ter estimated by contrasting it with that of the 
Larch, which is very rapid in its formation of tim- 
ber. An Oak at "Wimbush, in Essex, in thirteen 
years had increased four inches and a half in cir- 
cumference ; and in the same time a Larch had 
increased thirty -three inches, or nearly eight times 
as much. The Oak does not usually attain any 
great height, being more remarkable for the thick- 
ness of its bole, and its widely -spreading head. 
Exceptions, however, are not wanting. Li the 

c 



18 



THE OAK. 



Duke of Portland's park^ at Welbeck, there stood^ J 
in I79O5 an Oak, called "the Duke's ^yalking- 
stick/' wliich was an hundred and eleven feet 
high, the trunk rising to the height of seventy 
feet before it formed a head. Others nearly 
equalling this have been noticed. 

A remarkable characteristic of the Oak is the 
stoutness of its limbs. We know no tree, ex- 
cept, perhaps, the Cedar of Lebanon, so remark- 
able in this respect. The limbs of most trees 
spring from the trunk : in the Oak they may be 
rather said to divide from it ; for they generally 
carry with them a great share of the substance of 
the stem : you often scarcely know which is stem 
and which is branch ; and, towards the top, the 
stem is entirely lost in the branches. This gives 
peculiar propriety to the epithet ' fortes,' in cha- 
racterising the branches of the Oak ; and hence 
its sinewy elbows are of such peculiar use in ship- 
building. Whoever, therefore, does not mark the 
fortes ramos of the Oak, might as well, in painting 
a Hercules, omit his muscles. But I speak only 
of the hardy veterans of the forest. In the effe- 
minate nurslings of the grove we have not this 
appearance. There the tree is all stem drawn up 
into height. When we characterise a tree, vre con- 
sider it, in its natural state, insulated, and without 
any lateral pressure. In a forest, trees naturally 
grow in that manner^ The seniors depress all the 
juniors that attempt to rise near them ; but in a 
planted grove all grow up together, and none can 
exert any power over another. 

The next characteristic of the Oak is the 
twisting of its branches. Examine the Ash, the 
Elm, the Beech, or almost any other tree, and 



THE OAK. 



19 



you may observe in what direct and straight lines 
the branches in each shoot from the stem ; whereas 
the limbs of an Oak are continually twisting here 
and there in various contortions, and, like the 
course of a river, sport and play in every possible 
direction, sometimes in long reaches, and some- 
times in shorter elbows." 

Another peculiarity of the Oak is its expan- 
sive spread. This, indeed, is a just characteristic 
of the Oak ; for its boughs, however twisted, con- 
tinually take a horizontal direction, and oversha- 
dow a large space of ground. Indeed, where it is 
fond of its situation, and has room to spread, it 
extends itself beyond any other tree, and, like a 
monarch, takes possession of the soil. The last 
characteristic of the Oak is its longevity, which 
extends beyond that of any other tree ; perhaps 
the Yew may be an exception, I mention the 
circumstance of its longevity, as it is that which 
renders it so singularly picturesque. It is through 
age that the Oak acquires its greatest beauty, 
which often continues increasing even into decay, 
if any proportion exist between the stem and the 
branches. AVhen the branches rot away, and the 
forlorn trunk is left alone, the tree is in its de- 
crepitude in the last stage of life, and all beauty 
is gone." 

Gilpin concludes this characteristic description 
with the following words : I have dwelt the 
longer on the Oak, as it is confessedly both the 
most picturesque tree in itself, and the most ac- 
commodating in composition. It refuses no sub- 
ject either in natural or in artificial landscape. It 
is suited to the grandest, and may ^^dth propriety 
be introduced into the most pastoral. It adds 



20 



THE OAK, 



new dignity to the ruined tower and Gothic 
arch ; by stretching its wdld, moss-grown branches 
athwart their ivied walls, it gives them a kind of 
majesty coeval with itself ; at the same time its 
propriety is still preserved, if it throw its arms 
over the purling brook, or the mantling pool, 
where it beholds 

' Its reverend image in th' expanse below.'" 

The diameter of the trunk of the Oak where it 
first leaves the ground, is generally much greater 
than it is a few feet higher. To this circumstance, 
and to the fact that its roots are not nearly so 
liable to rot in the ground as those of other trees, 
it may be attributed that it is very rarely blown 
up by the roots. That skilful engineer, Mr. 
Smeaton, is stated to have taken his idea of the 
form of the Eddystone Lighthouse from observing 
the proportions of an Oak trunk. Britton, in his 

Beauties of Devon," thus writes : The object 
from which Mr. Smeaton conceived his idea of re- 
building the Eddystone Lighthouse was the waist 
or bole of a large spreading Oak, which, though 
subject to a very great impulse from the agitation 
of violent winds, resists them all, partly from its 
elasticity, and partly from its natural strength. 
Considering the particular figure of the tree, as 
connected with its roots, which lie hid below 
ground, Mr. Smeaton observed that it rose from 
the surface with a large swelling base, which at 
the height of its ow^n diameter is generally re- 
duced by an elegant curve, concave to the eye, to 
a diameter less by at least one-third, and some- 
times to half its original base. From thence its 



THE OAK. 



21 



sides, tapering more gradually, assume a perpen- 
dicular direction, and for some height form a 
cylinder. After that a greater circumference be- 
comes necessary for the insertion and establish- 
ment of the principal boughs^ which produce a 
swelling of its diameter. Hence may be deduced 
an idea of what the proper shape of a column of 
the greatest stability ought to be to resist the 
action of external violence, when the quantity of 
matter is given whereof it is to be composed. 
Upon this model, therefore, on the 25th of 
August, 1759, Mr. Smeaton completed his light- 
house, being the third structure of the kind which 
had been raised on the dangerous rock from which 
it derives its name." How "wisely he acted in 
choosing Nature for his instructress, may be 
inferred from the fact that it has now stood 
eighty-six years without requiring any essential 
repairs. 

The trunk of the Oak, thus perfectly adapted 
as it is by its form to resist the most violent action 
of the wind, derives additional strength from the 
slow rate of growth of its timber. A very small 
quantity of woody fibre is deposited every year, 
but it is proportionately dense and solid, and the 
concentric annual layers are very firmly united. 
Hence it is admirably prepared to withstand 
lateral -vdolence, as well as to support its enor- 
mous superincumbent weight of branches ; while 
its tap-root, descending perpendicularly to a 
great depth, and its tortuous underground arms 
proceeding horizontally at a greater depth be- 
neath the surface than those of most other 
trees, are equally efiicacious in resisting any 
upheaving force to which its spreading and 



22 



THE OAK. 



abundant foKage might otliermse render it pecu- 
liarly liable. 

Were it not for this wonderfully massive struc- 
ture of the main trunk, the Oak would be unable 
to bear up tlie ponderous weight of its enormous 
limbs, which, each a mighty tree in itself, would 
rend in pieces any less substantial support. For 
it must have been remarked by everyone who has 
looked thoughtfully on a full-grown Oak, that the 
trunk does not divide into several smaller ones, 
all approaching to a perpendicular direction ; but 
that its unwieldy arms quit the bole ahnost ho- 
rizontally, so that the centre of gra^^ity of each 
lies a long way without the base of the tree, and 
is therefore constantly exerting its utmost power 
to tear itself away from the central column. This 
tendency to preserve a horizontal direction is most 
conspicuous in a fuU-gro^ra tree, owing to the 
greater size of the object. But this peculiarity has 
not escaped the curious eye of the artist even in 
the smallest twigs. In the spray of trees," Gilpin 
remarks, Xature seems to observe one simple 
principle ; which is, that the mode of growth in the 
spray corresponds exactly with that of the larger 
branches, of which indeed the spray is the origin. 
Thus the Oak divides his boughs from the stem 
more horizontally than most other deciduous 
trees ; the spray makes exactly, in miniature, the 
same ajDpearance : it breaks out in right-angles, 
or in angles that are nearly so, forming its shoots 
commonly in short lines, the second year's shoot 
usually taking some direction contrary to that of 
the first. Thus the rudiments are laid of that 
abrupt mode of ramification for which the Oak is 
so remarkable. "WTien two shoots spring from the 



THE OAK. 



23 



same knot, t^^y ^i'^ commonly of unequal length ; 
and one with large strides generally takes the lead. 
Very often, also, three shoots, and sometimes four, 
spring from the same knot. Hence the spray of 
this tree becomes thick, close, and interwoven; so 
that at a little distance it has a full, rich appear- 
ance, and more of the picturesque roughness than 
we observe in the spray of any other tree. The 
spray of the Oak generally springs from the 
upper, or the lateral parts of the bough : and it 
is this which gives its branches that horizontal 
appearance which they generally assume.*' 

This characteristic, which renders the Oak so 
great a favourite with the painter, makes it no 
less serviceable to the ship -builder, who selects 
the crooked limbs, and applies them, under the 
designation of hiee-tiirther^ to the purpose of sup- 
porting the decks of ships. Trees which grow 
at a considerable distance from each other are 
the most productive of this kind of timber ; for, 
thus situated, the branches have ample room to 
follow the direction of the straggling roots, to 
which they naturally incline. In some parts of 
France, it is said, young trees are forced to as- 
sume this curved mode of growth by the suspen- 
sion of weights to their heads ; and in this coun- 
try also experiments have been tried in order 
to produce similar results ; but in most cases 
with very doubtful success. This custom was 
known to Virgil. 

" Continuo in sylvis magna vi flexa domatur 
In burim, et curvi formam accipit iilmns aratri/' 

Georg. i. 

Evelyn says, I conclude with recommending 
the bowing and bending of young timber -trees, 



24 



THE OAK. 



especially Oak and Ash, into various flexures, 
curbs, and postures, wliich may be done by hum- 
bling and binding them down with tough bands 
and withs, or hooks rather, cut skrew-^^dse, or 
slightly haggled and indented ^^•ith a knife, and 
so skrewed into the ground, or by hanging of 
weighty stones to the tops or branches, till the 
tenor of the sap, and custom of being so con- 
strained, do render them apt to grow so of them- 
seh'es, without power of redressing. This coiu^se 
would wonderfully accommodate the ship-builder 
with materials for knee-timber, and prove use- 
ful to the wheel-^raght, as it would conform the 
wood to their moulds, save infinite labour, and 
abbreviate the work of hewing and waste." 

According to the same author (who is evidently 
a truthful writer, although many of his opinions 
appear to us very absui'd, owing to the imperfect 
state of science in his time), the Oak owed much 
of its popularity to the belief that its shade was 
remarkably salubrious. He says, It is reported 
that the very shade of this tree is so wholesome, 
that the sleeping or lying under it becomes a 
present remedy to paralytics, and recovers those 
v\'hom the mistaken malign influence of the Wal- 
nut-tree has smitten. The antients, who were 
fond of refreshing themselves under the shade 
of trees, caution us ao'ainst the influence of the 
Walnut." 

The foliage of the Oak is as characteristic as 
any other feature of the tree, whether we regard 
the sinuated form of each individual leaf, or the 
aggregate tufts. The principal difference between 
the leaves of Quercus pedunculata (or Quercus 
rohiir) and Quercus sessilifiora is, that in the 



THE OAK. 



25 



former they have scarcely any stems, whereas the 
leaves of the latter are decidedly stalked, and the 
lobes on each side are more nearly opposite. Both 
species burst their leaf and flower-buds about the 
same time, in April or May ; Quercus sessUiflora 
being, however, generally somewhat later. At this 
time their pale green tint, delicately shaded with 
crimson, seems scarcely to accord with the bulky 
and more robust character of the rest of the tree ; 
but, as the season advances, they assume a full, 
florid green, which they retain till very late in the 
year. At the approach of ^^dnter they put on a 
rich russet brown or red hue, and light up many a 
landscape, which ^\'ithout them would be cold and 
cheerless. Young trees do not cast their leaves 
even when every semblance of life has departed 
from them, but retain them, probably as a pro- 
tection for the embryo buds of the succeeding 
year, which are formed many months before they 
begin to expand. Once, on a frosty morning in 
January, I happened to be starting on a botanical 
ramble, and, just as the sun rose, entered a Devon- 
shire lane, the hedges of which were topped ^^ith 
young Oaks laden with the last year's foliage. 
Suddenly it seemed as if I had been set do^ra in 
Aladdin's wonderful garden. The trees, as they 
caught the first beams of the sun, appeared no 
longer to bear leaves, but plates of crimson trans- 
parent metal, or flakes of fire. The illusion lasted 
only a few minutes ; for, as soon as the sun was 
high enough to shine down upon the leaves, and 
not under them, they became withered Oak-leaves 
again, bringing back to the mind the year that 
was past, -svith its cares and its blessings. This 
was one of those trifling incidents in a man's life, 



26 



THE OAK. 



whicli, impressive in spite of its unimportance, 
will be remembered. Being remembered, it serves 
to illustrate my subject, and gives me tbe oppor- 
tunity of saying that tbe field Xaturalist has 
many such fertile reminiscences to fall back upon 
in his moments of reflection ; more, perhaps, than 
any other man. This incident in particular re- 
minds me not only of a happy day spent in the 
woods, but, besides this, it traces much more 
satisfactorily than any historian ever did, the 
worship of my Pagan forefathers to its source. 
Might it not have been under the influence of 
feelings such as were then excited in me, that 
the first Celt who worshipped Tornawa, the god 
of thunder, imder the form of an Oak, received 
his primary impressions of the Divine origin of 
Nature ? It were well if we, whenever we saw 
the symbol of God in His works, were to imitate 
the devotion of such an one, instead of resting 
merely on poetic beauty." Such light as he 
had, he followed. To what might not ice ascend 
if we as faithfully suffered oui'selves to be guided 
by the Sun of Revelation ! 

The Oak is remarkable for sending out young 
shoots of spring foliage (called Lammas shoots) 
late in the season, when its proper leaves are fully 
matured ; and this is more particularly the case 
when the latter have been injured. On the 2nd 
of August, 1844, the exposed Oaks at Penrose in 
Cornwall suff^ered severely from a violent storm 
from the west. In the course of a few hours all 
the leaves which had been unprotected from its 
influence, shrivelled up (without, however, ac- 
quiring the true autumnal tint) and died. But 
not long after, a second spring, as it were, set 



THE OAK. 



27 



in, and the trees were partially restored to their 
former flourishing condition. White, noticing 
a similar occurrence, says, When Oaks are 
quite stripped of their leaves by chaffers, they 
are clothed again, soon after Midsummer, with a 
beautiful foliage ; but Beeches, Horse-chestnuts, 
and Maples, once defaced by those insects, never 
recover their beauty again for the whole season." 

Amonc^st the manv remarkable trees in the 
New Forest in Hampshire, is one called the Ca- 
denliam Oak, which buds every year in the depth 
of winter. Gilpin says, Having often heard of 
this Oak, I took a ride to see it on the 29th of 
December, 1781. It was pointed out to me 
among several other Oaks, surrounded by a little 
forest stream, winding round a knoll on which 
they stood. It is a tall straight plant, of no 
great age, and apparently vigorous, except that 
its top has been injured, from which several 
branches issue in the form of pollard-shoots. It 
was entirely bare of leaves, as far as I could dis- 
cern, when I saw it, and undistinguishable from 
the other Oaks in its neighbourhood ; except that 
its bark seemed rather smoother, occasioned, I 
apprehended, only by frequent climbing. Having 
had the account of its early budding confirmed on 
the spot, I engaged one Michael Lawrence, w^ho 
kept the White Hart, a small alehouse in the 
neighbourhood, to send me some of the leaves to 
Vicar's Hill, as soon as they should appear. The 
man, who had not the least doubt about the mat- 
ter, kept his word, and sent me several twigs, on 
the morning of the 5th of January, 1782, a few 
hours after they had been gathered. The leaves 
were fairly expanded, and about an inch in length. 



^28 



THE OAK. 



From some of the "buds two leaves had unsheathed 
them-selves^ but in general only one. In ITSl, 
one of its progeny, which grew in the gardens at 
Bulstrode^ had its flower-buds perfectly formed 
so early as the 21st of December, 

This early spring, however, of the Cadenliam 
Oak, is of very short dui'ation. The buds, after 
unfolding themselves, make no further progress, 
but immediately shrink from the season, and die. 
The tree continues torpid, like other deciduous 
trees, during the remainder of the winter, and 
vegetates again in the sprmg, at the usual season. 
I have seen it in full leaf in the middle of sum- 
mer, when it appeared, both in its form and 
foliage, exactly like other Oaks."^ 

Dean "Wren, speaking of this tree, says, King 
James could not be induced to believe the to on 
{reason) of this, till Bishop Andi'ewes, in whose 
diocese the tree grew, caused one of his own chap- 
laines, a man of known integritye, to give a true 
information of itt, which he did : for upon the 
eve of the Nati^dtye he gathered about a hundi'ed 
slips, "v^-ith the leaves newly opened, which he stuck 
in claye in the bottom of long white boxes, and 
soe sent them post to the courte, where they de- 
servedly raised not only admiration, but stopt the 
mouth of infidelitye and contradiction for ever. 
Of this I was both an eye-witness, and did distri- 
bute many of them to the great persons of both 

* A ™ter in the Saturday Magazine explains this phenomenon, 
on the supposition that the tree was originally brought by some en- 
thusiastic pilgrim from the Holy Land, and continued to put fonh its 
leaves at the same season that it had budded in Palestine. This 
supposition is undoubtedly very ingenious ; but, unfortunately, the 
British Oak does not grow in Palestine, nor any other species so 
closely resembling it as to be easily confounded -R-ith it. 



THE OAK. 



29 



sexes in court and others, ecclesiastical persons. 
But in these last troublesome times, a diveKsh 
fellow (of Herostratus humour) having hewen itt 
round at the roote, made his last stroke on his 
own legg, whereof he died, together with the old 
wondrous tree : which now sproutes up againe, 
and may renew his oakye age againe, iff some 
such envious chance doe not hinder or prevent 
itt ; from vrhich the example of the former 
\illane may perchance deterr the attempte. This 
I thought to testifie to all future times, and there- 
fore subscribe with the same hand through which 
those little oakye slips past." 

In many of the rural districts oak-leaves and 
oak-apples (to be mentioned hereafter) are worn 
by boys on the 29th of May, the anniversary of 
the Restoration of Charles II., who is said to 
have concealed himself in an Oak-tree from the 
Parhamentary soldiers."^ 

I must not omit to mention here that the Ro- 
mans were accustomed to bestow a wreath com- 
posed of Oak-leaves, called a civic crown, on any 
one who saved the life of a citizen ; which was 
considered the highest service that could be ren- 
dered to the state. 

*^ And oaken wreath his hardy temples bore 
Mark of a citizen preserved he wore." 

Rowers Lucan. 

Here, too, I may mention the absurd belief, 
once popularly prevalent, that the Barnacle-goose 
owed its origin to this tree. The v>'ord harjiacle 
is said to be derived from bair?i, a child, and acle, 
the aac, or oak. The quaint old botanist, Gerard, 

* For a full account of King Charles's Oak, see page 83. 



30 



THE OAK, 



tells the story so faithfully, that I cannot do better 
than transcribe his o^^ii words. There are found 
in the North of Scotland, and Islands adjacent, 
called Orchades, certain trees whereon do grow 
certain shells tending to russet, w^herein are con- 
tained little hying creatures ; which shells, in 
time of maturitie, do open, and out of them do 
grow those little living things, which, falling into 
the water, do become fowles, which we call barna- 
kles ; in the North of England, hrent-geese ; and in 
Lancashire, tree-geese ; but the other that do fall 
upon the land perish, and come to nothing. Thus 
much from the wTitings of others, and also from 
the mouths of people of those parts, which may 
very well accord with truth." This he gives from 
the report of others ; now for what is proved by 
the evidence of his own senses. There is a 
small island in Lancashire, called the Pile of 
Toulders, wherein are found the broken pieces of 
old and bruised ships, some whereof have been 
cast there by shipwracke ; and also the trunks and 
bodies, with the branches, of old and rotten trees, 
cast up there likewise, whereon is found a certain 
spawn, or froth, that in time breaketh into cer- 
tain shells, in shape like those of the muskle, but 
sharper pointed, and of a whitish colour, wherein 
is contained a thing in form like a lace of silke, 
finely woven as it were together, of a whitish co- 
lour, one end whereof is fastened unto the inside 
of the shell, even as the fish of oisters and mus- 
kles ; the other end is made fast unto the belly of 
a rude mass, or lumpe, which in time cometh to 
the shape and form of a bird. When it is per- 
fectly formed the shell gapeth open, and the first 
thing that appearethis the foresaid lace, or string; 



THE OAK. 



31 



next come the legs of the bird hanging out ; and 
as it groweth greater, it openeth the shell by de- 
grees, till at length it is all come forth, and 
hangeth only by the bill ; in short space after it 
cometh to full maturitie, and falleth into the sea, 
where it gathereth feathers, and groweth to a fowl 
bigger than a mallard, and lesser than a goose, 
having black legs, bill, or beake, and feathers 
black and white, spotted in such a manner as our 
magpie ; called in some places a pie-aiinet ; which 
the people of Lancashire call by no other name 
than a tree-goose ; which place aforesaid, and the 
parts adjoining, do much abound therewith that 
one of the best is bought for three-halfpence. 
For the truth hereof, if any doubt, let them re- 
paire to me, and I shall satisfy them by the tes- 
timonie of good -s^itnesses."* 

This strange fable took its rise from a certain 
shell -fish being frequently found attached to pieces 
of wood which had long lain in salt water. This 
shell-fish, now called Lepas anatifera^ is provided 
with a long leathery tube, by which it attaches 
itself to the bottom of vessels, and to other tim- 
ber ; it is also furnished near the other extremity 
with a number of curved, feathery fibres, which, 
when expanded, bear some resemblance to the tail 
of a bird.f From this fancied similarity, and the 

* Herbal, p. 1588. 

t " It is hardly worth while to mention the clayks^ a sort of geese, 
which are believed by some, with great admiration, to grow upon 
trees on this coast, and in other places ; and, when they are ripe, to 
fall down into the sea, because neither their nests nor eggs can any- 
where be found. But they who saw the ship in which Sir Francis 
Drake sailed round the world, when it was laid up in the river Thames, 
could testify that little birds bred in the old rotten keels of ships, 
since a great number of such, without life and feathers, stuck close 
to the outside of the keel of that ship. Yet I should think that 



32 



THE OAK. 



coincidence tliat the shell-fish was found in abun- 
dance in places which the Barnacle-goose fre- 
quented, probably to make them its food, the 
fable originated ; a fertile imagination making up 
for the barremiess of the facts. Before the Re- 
formation, Dr. Walsh tells us, the fishy origin of 
the bird was so firmly believed that the question 
was warmly and learnedly disputed, whether it 
might not be eaten in Lent. 

The story may have gained a more ready cre- 
dence from the fact that the Oak is more prolific 
in animal life, supplying more insects \^"ith food, 
than any other tree. According to Mr. Stephens, 
an excellent authority, nearly a half of the British 
insects which feed on vegetables, either exclu- 
sively or partially inhabit the Oak. If to tliis 
number we add the insects which live on the above, 
it A^ill be found that the total of insects which, 
during some period of their existence, derive their 
support either from the tree itself, or from their 
fellow-colonists in it, will amount to scarcely less 
than two thousand. Of these I shall mention a 
few of the most remarkable, referring the reader 
who is anxious to learn further particulars to an 
able article, by Westwood, in Loudon's " Arbo- 
retum Britamiicum," a work of great research, 
abounding in valuable information on all subjects 
connected with the history, propagation, and treat- 
ment of all the trees and shrubs growing in Great 
Britain, both indigenous and exotic. 

Among the insects which feed on the substance 
of the wood of the Oak, is the larva or grub of 

the generation of these birds was not from the logs of wood, but from 
the sea, termed b}^ the poets "'the parent of all things.' '* — Camde7i^s 
Britan?iia. 



THE OAK. 



33 



the great Stag-beetle.* Notwithstanding, how- 
ever, its abundance in some localities, and its 
great size, it does no injury, never attacking any 
but decayed wood. When it has attained its full 




STAG-BEETLE. 



size, it constructs a cocoon of chips of wood, which 
it glues together by a self-derived cement, and 
assumes the pupa stage of its existence, when it 
ceases to eat. The perfect insect, well known as 
the Stag-beetle, seems to subsist entirely upon 
fluids, which it laps up by means of its long, pen- 
cil-like lower jaws and lip. The number of the 
insects w^hich feed upon the living wood appears 
to be limited ; but those which reside beneath the 
bark, without boring into the wood, are much 
more nmnerous. So great are the ravages some- 
times committed by one minute beetle {Scolytus 
pygmceus)^ that it was, not long since, found ne- 
cessary to cut down, in the Bois de Vincennes 
near, Paris, 50,000 young Oaks in which they had 

* Lucanus cervus. 

D 



34 



THE OAK. 



taken up their abode. It is. however, from the 
leaves of the Oak that the chief portion of its 
insect population derive their support : and it is 
principally among the caterpillars of the moths 
and butterflies that the greatest number of the 
leaf-feeders are found. Of these the Tortrix 
viridana^ a very small, pretty, green species, is 
by far the most obnoxious ; entirely stripping the 
Oaks of their foliage, as we have more than once 
observed at Coombe AVood in Surrey. Even the 
smaller sorts of caterpillars become, from their 
multiplicity, sometimes as destructive as those 
which are of considerable magnitude. During 
the summer of 1827, we were told that an extra- 
ordinary blight had suddenly destroyed the leaves 
of all the trees in the Oak of Honour ^Vood, 
Kent. On going thither, we found the report but 
little exaggerated ; for, though it was in the leafy 
month of June, there was scarcely a leaf to be 
seen on the Oak trees, which constitute the greater 
portion of the wood. But we were rather sur- 
prised when we discovered, on examination, that 
this extensive destruction had been eflected by 
one of the small solitary Leaf-rollers {Tortrix viri- 
da?ia j : for one of this sort seldom consumes more 
than four or five leaves, if so much, dui'ing its 
existence. The number, therefore, of these cater- 
pillars must have been almost beyond conception; 
and that of the moths, the previous year, must 
also have been very great : for the mother moth 
only lays from fifty to a hundred eggs, which are 
glued to an oak-branch, and remain during the 
winter. It is remarkable that in this wood, dur- 
ing the two following summers, these caterpillars 
did not abound. The moth varies in the expan- 



THE OAK. 



35 



sion of its wings from seven to thirteen lines : the 
anterior wings are pale green^ with a whitish mar- 
gin in fronts and the posterior wings brownish. 
It is so extremely abundant, that towards the end 
of the month of June, when it first appears, it 
may be shaken from the trees in perfect showers. 
The caterpillar of this moth rolls up the oak- 
leaves in a very ingenious manner, so as to form 




LEAF-ROLLER. 

a very commodious retreat, in which, indeed, it 
ordinarily resides, the centre of the roll being 
open : its diameter is proportionate to that of the 
body of the insect, and the roll is secured by va- 
rious little packets of silk attached to the body of 
the leaf and to the adjoining part of the roU."^ 

Among the beetles, the common Cockchafer, or 
Oakweb,f '^is the most obnoxious of the leaf-eat- 
ing species. The egg of this terrible devastator 
is white, and is deposited in the ground, where it 
soon changes into a soft whitish grub, with a red 
head, and about an inch and a half long. In this 
state it continues four years, during which time it 

* Loudon, Arbor. Brit., cap. cy. t Melolontha vulgaris. 



36 



THE OAK. 



commits the most destructive ravages on the roots 
not only of grass, but of all other plants and 
young trees. When full grown, the larva digs in 
the earth to the almost incredible depth of five or 
six feet, spins a smooth case, and then changes 
into a chrysalis. In this state it remains till the 
following spring, when the perfect insect comes 
from the ground, and commences an immediate 



attack on the leaves of trees. A remarkable ac- 
count of the ravages of these insects is given by 
Molyneux, in one of the early volumes of the 
Philosophical Transactions, in which their ap- 
pearance in the county of Galway in Ireland, in 
1688, is narrated. They were seen in the day- 
time perfectly quiet, and hanging from the boughs 
in clusters of thousands, clinging to each other 
like bees w^hen they swarm ; but dispersing to- 
wards sunset, with a strange humming noise, like 
the beating of distant di^ums ; and in such vast 
numbers, that they darkened the air for the space 
of tw^o or three miles square ; and the noise they 
made in devouring the leaves was so great, as to 
resemble the distant sawing of timber. In a very 



\ 




COCKCHAFER. 



THE OAK. 



37 



short time the leaves of all the forest-trees for 
some miles were destroyed, leaving the trees as 
bare and desolate in the middle of summer as they 
would have been in winter; they also entered the 
gardens, and attacked the fruit-trees in the same 
manner. Their multitudes spread so exceedingly, 
that they infested houses, and became exceedingly 
offensive and troublesome. They were greedily 
devoured by the swine and poultry, which watch- 
ed under the trees for their falling, and became 
fat on this unusual food ; even the people adopted 
a mode of dressing them, and used them as food. 
Towards the end of the summer they disappeared 
suddenly, and no traces were perceived of them 
the ensuing year. In the Magazine of Natural 
History, a story is told of a gentleman, who, find- 
ing his Oak-trees stripped of their leaves in the 
middle of summer, suspected some rooks of hav- 
ing destroyed them. That the Oaks were nearly 
bare was beyond dispute ; and he had himself 
seen the rooks settling on them, and pecking away 
right and left with their bills. War was, there- 
fore, declared against the rooks ; but, fortunately, 
before hostilities were commenced, the gentleman 
was convinced, by some one who knew more of 
natural history than himself, that the rooks were 
not in fault : on the contrary, they had only 
flocked to the trees for the sake of devouring the 
myriads of Cockchafers, and of the larvae of 
Moths, which were the real depredators."* 

Among the less injurious insects which frequent 
the Oak is the Purple Emperor, the most splen- 
did of the British butterflies. The caterpillar of 

* Loudon, Arbor. Brit., cap. cv. The service performed by tbe 
rook in destroying the grub of the Cockchafer is well known. 



38 



THE OAK. 



this insect feeds on the leaves of one of our 
Willows : but the perfect insect, according to 
Haworth, invariably fixes his throne upon the 
summit of a Broad-leaved Oak, from the utmost 
sprigs of which, on sunny days, he performs his 
aerial excursions ; and in these ascends to a much 
greater elevation than any other insect I have 
ever seen, sometimes mounting higher than the 
eye can follow ; especially if he happens to quar- 
rel ^vith another Emperor, the monarch of some 
neighbouring Oak : they never meet without a 
battle, flying upwards all the while, and combat- 
ing ^vith each other as much as possible ; after 
which they will frequently return again to the 
identical sprigs from which they ascended." 

To the class of innocuous insects must be re- 
ferred also the various species of gall-flies, Vv'hose 
instinct teaches them to originate a local disease 
in some part of the Oak, and thus to provide 
their offspring ^vith food and a dwelling-house. 
A history of the Oak would be very imperfect 
mthout a full notice of the curious productions 
kno\ra by the name of galls; and, as the subject 
is a very interesting one, I do not scruple to dwell 
upon it, although, strictly speaking, it belongs as 
much to Entomology as to Botany. 

A small fly alights on a Uvig, or leaf, or bud, 
of an Oak, and with an excessively acute instru- 
ment, with which it is provided by Xature for this 
express purpose, punctures the vegetable fibre, 
and deposits an egg, or perhaps two or more eggs, 
so minute as to be almost invisible to the human 
eye. And is this all the provision that the fly is 
going to make for its progeny ? It is ; for though 
seemingly little, it is ample enough. The pre- 



THE OAK. 



39 



servation of that egg is the care of the Ahnighty. 
You believe that your own life is under the pro- 
tection of the same beneficent Being ; and yet the 
egg of a fly, which is so small that you might 




OAK-GALLS. 



brush away a thousand of them with the palm of 
your hand, bears an infinitely greater proportion 
to the world which you think so large, than the 
whole term of your life does to eternity. I do 
not wish to place the value of an immortal soul 
in the scale against any material object; it would 
be wicked to do so, for it would be to set aside 
the beautiful lesson of our blessed Redeemer ; 
but I would warn you against the habit of be- 
lieving that the preservation of any created thing 



40 



THE OAK. 



(however contemptible it may appear to you) is 
too trifling a matter for the care of the Ahnighty» 
And here, too, it is particularly necessary that I 
should advert to the all-fostering Providence of 
God, because the deepest and most learned specu- 
lations of human science are utterly at fault. 
Wlij from the puncture of one kind of fly a large 
irregular excrescence should be produced ; why 
from that of another a smooth spherical gall, or a 
scaly bud, or a flat circular scale, is all a mystery 
— a mystery so deep that no plausible explanation 
of it has ever been attempted. To say that an 
alteration takes place in the character of the 
juices ; that a disease is produced which arrests 
them, and causes them to arrange themselves in a 
certain set form — this is not to account for the 
phenomenon ; it is merely an unsatisfactory state- 
ment of the result, the real difficulty being left 
untouched. You must therefore be content to 
read the description of the different kinds of galls 
which have been observed, and test its accuracy, 
when you can, by comparing it with the natural 
objects themselves. 

In the first place, it appears that the diff'erent 
kinds of insects select different parts of the tree 
in which to deposit their eggs, and that the cha- 
racter of the galls produced equally varies. The 
largest species is generally called the Oak-apple, 
and grows on the extremity of a twig. It is of a 
soft spongy substance, and an irregular shape, 
shaded with browm and pink on the outside ; and 
it is divided on the inside into a number of cells, 
each of which contains either a small grub, a pupa, 
or a perfect fly, according to the season. Gerard, 
whose marvellous account of the Barnacle-goose 



THE OAK. 



41 



I have already quoted, tells us, that galls of this 
kind \vere in his day commonly consulted as augu- 
ries. The Oke-appleSj" he says, being broken 
in sunder about the time of their withering, doe 
foreshew the sequell of the yeare^ as the expert 
Kentish husbandmen have observed by the living 
things found in them ; as, if they finde an ant, 
they foretell plenty of graine to ensue ; if a white 
worm, like a gentill or magot, then they prog- 
nosticate murren of beasts and cattell ; if a spider, 
then (say they) we shall have a pestilence, or 
some such like sicknesse to follow amongst men. 
These things the learned also have observed and 
noted ; for Matthiolus, writing upon Dioscorides, 
saith, that before they have an hole through 
them they containe in them either a flie, a spider, 
or a worme ; if a flie, then vv'arre ensueth ; if a 
creeping worme, then scarcity of victuals ; if a 
running spider, then followeth great sickenesse or 
mortalitie." * 

* "The presage of the year preceding, whicli is commonly made 
from insects or little animals in Oak-apples, according to the kinds 
thereof, either maggot, ily, or spider: that is, of famine, war, or 
pestilence ; whether we mean that woody excrescence, which shooteth 
from the branch about ^lay, or that round and apple-like accretion 
which groweth under the leaf about the latter end of summerj is, I 
doubt, too distinct, nor yerifiable from. event. For flies and maggots 
are found every year, very seldom spiders : and Helmont affirmeth, 
he could never find the spider and the fly upon the same trees, that 
is the signs of war and pestilence, which often go together : besides, 
that the flies found were at first maggots, experience hath informed 
us ; for keeping those excrescences, we have observed their conver- 
sions, beholding in magnifying glasses the daily progression thereof. 
As may be also observed in other vegetable excretions, whose maggots 
do terminate in flies of constant shapes ; as in the nut-galls of the 
outlandish Oak, and the mossy tuft of the wild Briar ; which having 
gathered in November, we have found the little maggots, which 
lodged in wooden cells all winter, to turn into flies in June." — Sir 
T. Browne's Vulgar Errors. 



42 



THE OAK. 



In this case, as in many others^ truth is stranger 
than fiction." It not unfrequently happens that 
one of the ichneumon flies lays an egg in the body 
of the original inhabitant of one of these cells. 
From this egg proceeds a small worm, which lives 
on the substance of its predecessor, inhabits his 
house, and, when grown to a perfect insect, es- 
capes and takes flight in search of a similar abode 
for its own progeny. What faculty, or sense, 
or instinct, can this little animal possess, w^hich 
directs it to a solid vegetable substance, in the 
centre of which is stored up proper nourishment 
for its young ? What geometrical skill enables it 
to discover in what part of the mass its prey lies 
buried ? By the aid of what calculating power 
does it contrive to pierce the body of the included 
grub only so deep as to deposit its egg in a place 
of security, without wounding any vital part ? If 
old Gerard had been acquainted with these facts, 
he would surely have thought them more won- 
derful than all his absurdly superstitious fancies, 
which he could scarcely have been so foolish as to 
believe when he wrote them down. 

The most remarkable kind of Oak-gall, next to 
that described, is produced by another insect of 
the same genus (Cynips), This fly deposits its 
eggs in the stalk of the stamen-bearing flowers, 
which is long and drooping. The excrescence 
which follows resembles a currant in size, shape, 
and even in mode of growth, it often happening 
that several are placed at short distances from 
each other on the same thread-like stem. There 
is a remarkable fact connected with this species 
of gall. Those flowers of the Oak which bear 
stamens only are destined to wither and fall off* 



THE OAK. 



43 



as soon as they have shed their pollen, being no 
longer of any use. Those stalks, however, to 
which galls are attached, remain firmly united 
with the tree, and grow vigorously as long as the 




FLOWER-GALLS. 



grubs contained in them continue to feed. The 
notice of this circumstance has helped to decide 
one of the controverted points in vegetable phy- 
siology — namely, whether the sap is forced into 
motion by some power residing within the tree, or 
whether, being evaporated or otherwise consumed 
at the extremities, a fresh supply rises to fill its 
place. In favour of the latter supposition many 
arguments may be adduced ; and, among them, 
that furnished by the flower-stalks of the Oak, 
which cease to receive sap, and wither away, as 
soon as their proper vital functions are at an end ; 
but if they bear swelling galls on their extremi- 
ties, contribute their share of influence towards 
the ascent of sap throughout the tree generally, 



44 THE OAK. 

and supply their own substance in particular with 
as much as is required. 

Another gall^ resembling the last in form, being 




LEAF-GALI.S. 

spherical, is found attached to the leaves of the 
Oak. These vary very much in size, some being 




r 

ARTICHOKE-GALLS. 

as large as a marble ; and each contains a single 
insect, w^hich, when it arrives at its perfect state, 



THE OAK. 



45 



eats its way out through a great portion of the 
solid substance of the gall. 

The habitation of all the parasitic insects 
hitherto mentioned is formed out of the pulpy 
substance of the tree : one, however, which is 
not uncommon, and is called the Artichoke -gall, 
is an irregular development of the bud, and con- 
sists of a number of leafy scales overlapping each 
other. At first sight it might almost be taken for 
a young cone ; but on dissection is found, like 
other galls, to contain insects in various stages 
of their growth, according to the season. 



Another singular appendage of the leaf is the 
Oak-spangle, a fiat circular disc, attached by its 
central point to the under surface of the leaf. 
The inner side is smooth; the outer red, hairy, 
and fringed. Each of these contains a single in- 
sect, which retains its habitation until March, 
long after the leaves have fallen to the ground. 




OAK-SPANGLES. 



46 



THE OAK. 



Another insect of tlie same genus {Cynips) 
deposits its eggs at the base of the trunk, imme- 
diately above the root. In the early spring of the 
last year, 1845, I detected two galls formed by 
this species in Merthen Wood, Cornwall. The 
larger was about as big as a walnut, and produced 
in April sixty small flies, much resembling winged 
ants. They were not very active during their 
early existence, and possessed the remarkable 
instinct, common to many other insects, of coun- 
terfeiting death when touched. 

The galls of commerce, I may here remark, are 
similar in their nature to those already mentioned. 
They are produced by a dwarf species of Oak 
{Querciis infectoria), which rarely attains the 
height of six feet, growing in Asia Minor and 
Persia, The insect which occasions this gall is of 
a pale colour, and maybe often found in the galls 
sold in the shops of di^uggists. The latter vary 
greatly in the quahties on account of which they 
are employed; those which still contain the insect, 
and are knoTNii by the name of black, blue, or 
green galls, being the best : while those from 
which the insect has escaped, which are called 
w^hite galls, do not contain more than two-thirds 
of the astringent qualities of the former. They 
are used for making ink, for dyeing, and for 
medicinal purposes. 

Evelyn, who \\Tote in 1664, gives the follomng 
account of them : — Pliny affirms that the galls 
break out all together in one night, about the 
beginning of June, and arrive to their full growth 
in one day ; this I should recommend to the ex- 
perience of some extraordinary vigilant woodman, 
had we any of our Oaks that produced them, Italy 



THE OAK. 



47 



and Spain being the nearest that do. Galls are of 
several kinds, but grow upon a different species of 
Rohur from any of ours, which are never knov/n 
to bring these excrescences to maturity; the white 
and imperforated are the best ; of all which, and 
their several species, see Casp. Bauhinus, and the 
excellent IMalphighius, in his ' Discourse de 
Gallis,' and other morbous tumours raised by, and 
producing insects, infecting the leaves, stalks, and 
branches of this tree with a venomous liquor or 
froth, wherein they lay and deposit their eggs, 
which bore and perforate these excrescences when 
the worms are hatched, so as we see them in galls." 

The apples of Sodom, or Dead Sea apples, 
described by Josephus as being beautiful to the 
eye, but composed internally of dust and bitter 
ashes, are by some recent authors, with much 
semblance of truth, considered to be galls of some 
species of Oak, containing insects. 

I now come to speak of the flower and fruit of 
the Oak. Of the former, every tree produces two 
kinds ; the first containing stamens only, and there- 
fore producing no fruit. These appear nearly as 
soon as the leaves, consisting of yellow tasselled 
threads, which wither and drop off as soon as they 
have shed the pollen or fructifying dust, which 
they contain ; unless, as I have stated above, they 
happen to have been perforated by one of the 
gall insects. The other kind of flower appears 
soon after, and is even less conspicuous than the 
first ; it is this which subsequently produces the 
acorn. Of the acorn itself no description need be 
given ; no other natural production, perhaps, has 
served as a model for so many ornamental works 
of art ; and this is to be attributed not so much 



48 



THE OAK. 



to the popularity of the Oak, as to the finished 
elegance of form of the fruit itself. ^ Acorn- 
shaped' would, I should think, be a word as readily 
understood as 'round' or 'square.' Acorns and 
roses are in modern architecture what pomegra- 
nates and lilies were in Jewish. Different in pro- 
portions though it is in the various species of Oak, 
there is yet always similarity enough to detect the 
genus of the tree which produced it. The ball 
may be almost buried in the cup, or may be dis- 
proportionately long ; the latter may be almost 
smooth, or rugged, or even mossy ; yet, were an 
acorn of any species to be placed before a person 
who had never seen any other than that of the 
British Oak, he would immediately pronounce the 
tree from which it was gathered an Oak. 

As an article of food, the acorn has been, and 
in many places still is, highly prized. In the time 
of Strabo, Rome was principally supplied with 
hogs which had been fattened on mast in the 
woods of Gaul. This mast is supposed to have 
included the acorns of the common and Turkey 
Oaks, and of the Ilex ; as well as the nuts of the 
Beech and Chestnut. So important were acorns 
formerly considered, that by the laws of the 
Twelve Tables the owner of a tree might gather 
up his acorns though they should have fallen on 
another man's ground. 

It appears from Domesday Book, that in Eng- 
land, in the time of William the Conqueror, 
''Oaks were still esteemed, principally for the food 
they afforded to swine; for the value of the woods 
in several counties is estimated by the number of 
hogs they would fatten. The survey is taken so 
accurately that in some places woods are men- 



THE OAK. 



49 



tioned of a single hog. The numerous herds of 
swine which still continue one of the chief sources 
of wealth to the rural population of Spain^ are 
fed on the acorns of the evergreen Oak, which 
abound in almost every part of the country. They 
are also a grateful food to deer, both when wan- 
dering at large in the forests, and when confined 
in parks ; and are greedily eaten by pheasants and 
partridges. Evelyn, recommending the extensive 
planting of Oaks, says, " In this poor territory 
(Westphalia) every farmer does by antient custom 
plant so many Oaks about his farm as may sufiice 
to feed his swine. To effect this, they have been 
so careful, that, when of late years the armies in- 
fested the poor country (both Imperialists and 
Protestants), the single bishoprick of Munster 
was able to pay one hundred thousand crowns per 
mensem (which amounts to about twenty-five 
thousand pounds sterling of our money), besides 
the ordinary entertainment of their own princes 
and private families. This being incredible to be 
practised in a country so extremely barren, I 
thought fit to mention, either to encourage or re- 
proach us." The same author says, that a peck 
of acorns a day, with a little bran, wdll make a 
hog, 'tis said, increase a pound weight per diem 
for two months together." 

The Rev. Mr. Robinson, in his Natural His- 
tory of Westmoreland and Cumberland, says, that 
^ birds are natural planters of all sorts of trees, 
dissemiinating the kernels upon the earth till they 
grow up to their natural strength and perfection.' 
He tells us, that early one morning he observed 
^ a great number of rooks very busy at their work, 
upon a declining ground of a mossy surface, and 

E 



50 



THE OAK. 



that lie ^veiit out of liis way, on pui^pose to view 
their labour. He then found that they were 
planting a grove of Oaks. The manner of their 
planting was thus : they first made little holes 
in the earth with their bills, going about and 
about till the hole was deep enough, and then 
they dropped in the acorn, and covered it with 
earth and moss. The young plantation.' Mr. Ro- 
binson adds, ^ is now growing up to a thick grove 
of Oaks, fit for use, and of height for the rooks to 
build their nests in. The season was the latter 
end of autumn, when all seeds are fully ripe.' " * 

But the use of this fruit as an article of food is 
not confined to the inferior animals : even man 
has condescended to submit to the same humble 
fare, and among the rest our own progenitors. 

The earliest notices which we have of the Oak 
in Britain, are in the Saxon Chronicle, from 
which it appears that Oak forests were chiefly 
valued for the acorns which they produced, which 
were generally consumed by swine and other 
domestic animals, but, in years of great scarcity, 
were eaten by man. ^Famines,' Burnet observes, 
' which of old so continually occurred, history in 
part attributes to the failure of these crops. Long 
after the introduction of AVlieat and Oats, and 
Rye — nay, little more than seven huiidred years 
since, when other food had in a great measure 
superseded the use of mast, considerable reliance 
was still placed thereon, and Oaks were chiefly 
valued for the acorns they produced. In the 
Saxon Chronicle, that year of terrible dearth and 
mortality, 1116, is described as ^a very heavy 
timed, vexatious, and destructive year,' and the 

* Jesse's Gleanings in Natural Histon-. 



THE OAK. 



51 



failm-e of the mast in that season is particularly 
recorded : ^ This year, also, was so deficient in 
mast, that there never was heard such in all this 
land, or in Wales.'"* 

During the Peninsular war, both the natives 
and the French frequently fed on the acorns they 
met with in the woods of Portugal and Spain. In 
Morocco and Algiers, the acorns of Quercus Bed- 
lota are sold in the public markets, and eaten by 
the Moors both raw^ and roasted. Those of our 
own Oaks, when roasted, and treated like coffee, 
are said to aff'ord a liquor closely resembling that 
beverage ; and when sprouted acorns are treated 
like malt, theyaiford a liquor from which a strong 
spirit may be distilled. Acorns," says Evelyn, 
" before the use of Wheat-corn was found out 
were heretofore the food of men, — nay, of Jupiter 
himself, as well as other productions of the earth, 
till their luxurious palates were debauched. And 
even in the time of the Romans the custom was 
in Spain, to make a second service of acorns and 
mast, as the French do now of marrons and chest- 
nuts, which they likemse used to roast under the 
embers. And men had indeed hearts of oak ; I 
mean not so hard, but health and strength, and 
lived naturally, and with things easily parable and 
plain. And even now I am told that those small 
young acorns which we find in the Stock-doves' 
craws are a delicious fare, as well as those incom- 
parable salads, young herbs taken out of the maws 

* The Greeks, in alliision to the use of acorns as food, called one 
species of Oak pliagos^ or phegos, and the Latins esculus, as much as to 
say, the tree of eating ; like our word mast for acorns : whence masten^ 
to feed or fatten, and masticate, to chew. From glans, the French 
derive their glaner, and we our glean.^ gleaner^ for the collecting of 
scattered corn. — Saturday Magazi/ie, 



52 



THE OAK. 



of Partridges, at a certain season of the year, 
which gives them a preparation far exceeding all 
the art of cookery." 

The acorns of the Balonia Oak {Quercus JE-gi- 
lops) are annually brought to England from the 
Levant and the Morea, and are in great demand 
for tanning ; being said to contain more tannin in 
a given bulk of vegetable than any other sub- 
stance,^ The cups of this acorn are much larger 
than those of our British species, and are covered 
externally with long reflexed scales. 

I have not yet spoken of the application of the 
various parts of the Oak to the arts of civilized 
life, it having been my object to devote as much 
of my space as possible to the tree in its natural 
state. But inasmuch as a notice of any tree, and 
especially this king of trees, would be of necessity 
considered imperfect without at least some few^ 
remarks on this head, I will proceed to give a 
brief history of the general uses to which the 
wood and other parts of the Oak may be applied. 

The particular and most valued qualities of the 
Oak are hardness and toughness. Shakspeare uses 
two epithets to express these qualities, which are 
perhaps stronger than any we can find. 

" Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphTous bolt 
Split 'st the univedgahle and gnarled Oak 
Than the soft ^MTrtle." 

Many kinds of wood are harder, as Box and 
Ebony ; many kinds are tougher, as Yew and Ash ; 
but it is supposed that no species of wood, at least 
no species of timber, is possessed of both these 
qualities together in so great a degree as British 

* The Clips of this Oak, called " valonia," are now so extensively 
usad, that Oak-bark has materially deteriorated in value. 



THE OAK. 



53 



Oak. Almost all arts and manufactures are in- 
debted to it ; but in ship-building, and bearing 
burdens, its elasticity and strength are applied to 
most advantage. I mention these mechanical 
uses only because some of its chief beauties are 
connected with them. Thus, it is not the erect, 
stately tree, that is always the most useful in 
ship-building ; but more often the crooked one, 
forming short turns and elbows, which the ship- 
wrights and carpenters commonly call knee- 
timber. This, too, is generally the most pic- 
turesque. Nor is it the straight, tall stem, whose 
fibres run in parallel lines, that is the most useful 
in bearing burdens ; but that whose sinevv's are 
twisted, and spirally combined. This, too, is the 
most picturesque. Trees, under these circum- 
stances generally take the most pleasing forms."* 
The admirable qualities of Oak as a material 
for building, and other purposes, were known to 
our ancestors in ages long past, scarcely any other 
timber being found in any buildings of very high 
antiquity. The doors of the inner chapels of 
Westminster Abbey are said to be coeval ^^ith the 
original building : if this be true, they must be 
more than twelve hundred years old. The shrine 
of Edward the Confessor, in the same abbey, is 
also of Oak, and must be nearly eight hundred 
years old. In the county-hall at Winchester is 
preserved Arthur's round table, so well known in 
stories of English chivalry. It bears the figure 
of that Prince, and the names of several of his 
knights. Henry the Eighth is said to have taken 
great pleasure in shewing this table to his illustri- 
ous visitor, Charles the Fifth, as the actual oaken 



* Gilpin's Forest Scenery. 



54 



THE OAK. 



table made and placed there by tbe reiio^^ned 
British Prince, Ai'tbur, who lived in the early 
part of the sixth century; that is, about 1300 
years ago. Hence the poet Drayton sings : — 

" And so gTeat Arthur's seat ould Wincliester prefers, 
"Whose ould round table yet she vaunteth to be hers." 

It must have been cut from a tree of immense 
girth, as it measures eighteen feet in diameter. 
It has been perforated in many places by bul- 
lets, supposed to have been shot by Cromvell's 
soldiers. 

In digging away the foundation of the old 
Savoy Palace in London, which was built six 
hundred and fifty years since, the whole of the 
piles, many of which were of Oak, were found in 
a state of perfect soundness ; as also was the 
planking which covered the pile-heads.* In 
clearing the channel at Brundisium, in Italy, 
the workmen have drawn up many of the oak- 
piles that were driven in by Csesar. They are 
small Oaks stripped of their bark, and still as 
fresh as if they had been cut only a month, 
though buried above eighteen centuries seven 
feet under the sand. These piles were di'iven in 
by Julius Cxesar to block up Pompey's fleet. ''f 

Our forefathers appear to have discovered the 
eligibility of Oak as a material for ship-building 
at a very early period ; the Alder, Cypress, and 
Pine, having been principally used by the Romans. 
Professor Burnet, writing on this subject, says. 

An ancient vessel was discovered some years 
ago in a branch of the river Bother, near the west 
end of the Isle of Oxney, in Kent, and about two 
miles from the spot where formerly stood the 



* Burnet. 



t Phillips. 



THE OAK. 



55 



Roman city of Anderida. The timber of which 
this vessel is constructed is Oak, perfectly soimd, 
and nearly as hard as iron ; and some persons 
believe it to be one of the fleet abandoned by the 
Danes after their defeat in the reign of Alfred. 
This, however, is but conjecture; still, whether it 
be so, or whether it be a wreck of some Danish 
pirates, it must have lain there many centuries. 
Sir Joseph Banks records, in the Journal of 
Science, the following account of an ancient canoe 
found in Lincolnshire in April, 1816, at a depth 
of eight feet under the surface, in cutting a drain, 
parallel ^^'ith the river Witham, about two miles 
east of Lincoln, between that city and Horsley 
Deep. It seems hollowed out of an Oak tree ; it 
is thirty feet eight inches long, and measures three 
feet broad in the ^^'idest part. The thickness of 
the bottom is between seven and eight inches. 
Another similar canoe was discovered in cutting 
a drain near Horseley Deep ; but it was unfor- 
tunately destroyed by the workmen before it was 
ascertained w^hat it was. Its length was nearly 
the same as the other, but it was four and a half 
feet wide. Besides these, three other canoes, re- 
sembling the above in construction, have been 
found in the same county : one in a pasture near 
the river Trent, not far from Gainsborough ; and 
two in cutting a drain through the fens below 
Lincoln. One of these is deposited in the British 
Museum. Conjecture alone can be indulged as to 
the probable age of these three canoes ; but the 
fact of their being hollowed out of the trunks of 
trees must carry them back to a very early date, 
and establish their extreme antiquity. Long 
before the time of Alfred the Britons were fami- 



56 



THE OAK. 



liar ^vith ships regularly built : vessels such as 
these are found only among the rudest people, 
and in the earliest stages of society ; and the 
epoch when any of the European nations used 
such canoes must be remote indeed." 

Speaking of the uses of the Oak generally, 
Loudon says, " The wood of the Oak is more 
dui'able, in every state in which it can be placed, 
than that of any other tree which abounds in 
large quantities in Europe. It is hard, tough, 
tolerably flexible, strong, without being too heavy, 
not easy to splinter, and not readily penetrated 
by water : and hence its value in ship -building. 
Some woods are harder, but they are more fra- 
gile : and others are more flexible, but do not 
possess so much hardness, toughness, and dura- 
bility. YHiere the grain is twisted, no timber is 
so well adapted for posts, either in house-building 
or in setting up mills, engines, or large machines. 
No wood lasts longer where it is subject to be 
alternately wet and dry ; and Oak piles have been 
known to endure many centuries. Sliingles, poles 
and laths, last longer of this wood than of any 
other ; and casks, and every other description of 
cooper's work, are most durable, and best adapt- 
ed for containing wines, ales, and other liquors, 
when they are made of Oak. Oak timber is 2:>ar- 
ticularly esteemed for the spokes of wheels, for 
which the small and slow-growing Oak of moun- 
tainous districts is greatly preferred to the more 
rapid -growing and larger Oak of the vallej's. 
Oaks of from fifteen to thirty years' growth make 
the most durable poles. The young tree, when 
from five to ten feet high, makes excellent hoops, 
which Evelyn savs we ouo'ht to substitute for 



THE OAK. 



57 



those of Hazel and Ash, as they are six times 
more durable : it also makes the very best vralk- 
ing-sticks, and very good handles to carters' whips. 
Of the roots, Evelyn says, were formerly made 
hafts to daggers, handles to knives, tobacco-boxes, 
mathematical instruments, tablets for artists to 
paint on instead of canvass, and elegant camleted 
joiner's work. Oak wood, every one know^s, is 
preferred before all others for ship -building, in 
the temperate regions of both hemispheres. From 
its toughness, it does not splinter when it is 
struck by a cannon-ball, and the hole made by a 
ball is consequently easy to plug up. Through- 
out Europe, and more especially in Britain, Oak 
timber vras used for every purpose, both of naval 
and civil architecture, till the wood of the pine 
and fir tribe came to be generally imported from 
the Baltic and North America, about the begin- 
ning of the last century. Since that period, the 
use of Oak timber has given way to that of Pine 
and Fir in house-building ; but still it maintains 
its superiority in the construction of ships, and 
various kinds of machines ; and even in house- 
building, where great durabihty is required. Oak 
wood is also still employed in joinery and cabinet- 
making. 

A writer in the Quarterly Review^ Oct, 1814, 
comparing the qualities of Oak timber grown in 
various places, says : The more sappy timber is, 
the more it is subject to be infected with fungi 
and the dry-rot ; thus all the timber brought from 
the forests of Germany, of which the Antwerp 
fleet has been built, is remarkably subject to the 
dry-rot ; so is all the timber brought from the 
forests of America ; whereas the timber of trees 



58 



THE OAK. 



that grow in exposed situations^ as on the sides of 
hills, and commons, and hedge-rows, being more 
compact and less sappy, is less subject to this 
fatal disease. Soil and climate have also, no 
doubt, considerable influence on the nature of 
growing timber ; the farther south Oak grows, 
the better the timber would seem to be ; the Oak 
on the bold shores of the Adriatic is the best Oak 
known in Europe ; and the Oak timber which is 
produced in the southern counties of England is 
preferred to the timber of the northern counties ; 
that of Sussex being considered as the best. In 
a contract for tree-nails, drawn up more than a 
hundred years ago, it is stipulated that they 
should be made of ^good Sussex Oak, free from 
knots and slakes/ " 

Much difference of opinion exists as to which 
species of British Oak produces the best timber. 
Early writers on the subject claim the superiority 
for Querciis rohur^ or the old English Oak," as 
they call it, on the ground that it is of more rapid 
growth, has a cleaner stem, and fewer knots, is more 
durable, and contains a larger proportion of heart- 
wood than the other species, Quercus sessUiflora^ 
or Durmast Oak. More recent authors, however, 
maintain that the true ^^old English Oak" is Quer- 
cus sessiliflora, and account for the fact that it is 
now less common than the other on the supposition 
that our forefathers were well aware of the supe- 
riority of the former species, and applied it so 
extensively to all works requiring durability, that 
it has long become comparatively scarce. But a 
few years since, it was generally believed that the 
beautiful carved roof of Westminster Hall was 
constructed of Chestnut. Recent examination 



THE OAK. 



59 



has, however, proved that it is composed entirely 
of Durmast Oak. This roof has stood for more 
than three hundred years. The foundation on 
which the stone piers of old London bridge were 
laid consisted of huge piles of timber, which when 
taken up were found to be perfectly sound, 
though they must have been driven upwards of 
six hundred years. The wood employed is from 
trees of the same species. Most of the timber 
found in old buildings which was formerly be- 
lieved to be Chestnut, is now known to be the 
wood of the Durmast Oak. In the year 1844, 
there was raised from the bottom of a lake at 
Davey Strand, between Dublin and Cavan, a huge 
canoe, which had been hollowed out of the trunk 
of a tree of the same kind. It measured no less 
than forty feet in length, the bottom being four 
feet three inches in diameter at one end, and about 
three feet at the other. On a fair computation, 
the circumference of this tree must have been at 
least twenty-one feet at the base, and fifteen feet 
at the height of forty feet from the ground. The 
antiquity of this rehc is almost too great to be 
speculated on. Much of the wood-work in the 
old border-fortresses of Wales, and the doors of 
pews in ancient churches, are made from the same 
tree. The principal difference apparent to the 
eye between the timber of the two species is, that 
Quercus robur is plentifully furnished with medul- 
lary rays, called by carpenters ^^silver-grain," of 
which the other species is almost entirely destitute, 
resembling in this respect the Chestnut : from this 
similarity have probably sprung the numerous 
mistakes of the one wood for the other. On the 
whole, it would seem, that whatever good quality 



60 



THE OAK, 



is found in either of tlie species, the other pos- 
sesses in a somewhat greater or less degree, and 
there is a little doubt that both will long continue 
to be applied indifterently to purposes where 
solidity, strength, and durability are required. 

But the Oak besrins to be valuable lono' before 
it has attained such a size as renders it fit for 
ship and house building. The ground Oak, 
while young, is used for poles, cudgels, and walk- 
ing-staffs, much come into mode of late, but to 
the waste of many a hopeful plant which might 
have proved good timber ; and I the rather de- 
claim against the custom, because I suspect they 
are such as are for the most part cut and stolen 
by idle persons, and brought up to London in 
great bundles, without the knowledge or leave of 
the owners, who would never have gleaned their 
copses for such trifling uses.'*'* 

According to Loudon, the proper age at which 
Oak copse should be cut do^vn varies from ^'fif- 
teen to thirty years : the rule being, that the 
principal stems of the plants, at one foot from the 
ground, should not be less than six inches in dia- 
meter. In favourable soils in the south and west 
of England, this size will be obtained in from 
twelve to fifteen years ; but in the colder climate, 
and in the inferior soil of the Highlands of Scot- 
land, from twenty-five to thirty years are required. 
The cutting over of copse is performed at the 
same season as that in which full-grown trees are 
felled, when in both cases the bark is an object 
as well as tlie timber." The very stump of an 
Oak,"' says Evelyn, especially that part which 
is dry and above ground, being well-grubbed, is 

* Evelyn. 



THE OAK. 



61 



many times worth the pains and charge for sundry 
rare and hard works ; and where timber is dear^ 
I could name some who^ abandoning this to work- 
men for their pains only, when they perceived the 
great advantage, repented of their bargain, and 
undertaking it themselves, were gainers above 
half. They made cups of the roots of Oaks here- 
tofore ; and such a curiosity, Athen^us tells us, 
was carved by Thericleus himself ; and there is a 
way so to tinge Oak, after long burying and soak- 
ing in water, w^hich gives it a wonderful politure, 
as that it has frequently been taken for a coarse 
ebony." * 

The timber-merchant and the painter, if called 
to give an opinion on any particular Oak, vrould, 
in all probability, greatly differ. To the form^er 
a clean, straight, and regular stem Avould suggest 
calculations as to the number of cubic feet of 
timber it would be found to contain when the 
axe, and square, and saw should have done their 
w^ork. A well-grown tree, therefore, in the vi- 
gour of its age, will be to him^ the perfection of 
all trees. The painter Vvdll perhaps, stop and ad- 
mire the stately growth of the same tree ; he ^\dll 
notice the symmetry of its form, and watch the 
brilliant lights playing about its thick foliage ; 
but he v/ill feel no desire to transfer it to his can- 
vass. There must be no perpendicular or parallel 
lines about the object of his choice ; no semi- 
circular evenly shaped head ; no arms of equal 
diameter springing from the main stem at the 
same angle, and extending to an equal distance all 
round. But shew him a veteran patriarch, whose 

* The Black Oak," fuiind in great quantities in many of the bogs 
in Ireland, might readily he mistaken for ebony. 



62 THE OAK. 

gnarled trunk is eaten out by the frost of cen- 
turies, whose knotted linibs are fringed with ferns, 
and mottled with innumerable mosses and lichens ; 
even if but a scanty fohage clings to branches 
which have been shattered again and again by the 
tempest^ or if, instead of a leafy summit, it rears 
aloft a fantastic assemblage of hoary, sapless 
antlers ; — and you will hear him exclaim, I go 
no farther to-day : this is the tree for a picture 1" 
And move he will not, until with his pencil he 
has produced the same image which the poet has 
conjured up with his pen. 

" A huge Oak, dry and dead. 
Still clad with reliques of its glories old. 
Lifting to Heaven its aged, hoary head ; 
Whose foot on earth hath got but feeble hold, 
And. half-disbowelled, stands above the ground ; 
With wreathed roots, and naked arms, 
And trunk all rotten and unsound.** 

Spenser. 

Gilpin (and few ^vill be bold enough to differ 
from him in this respect) considers the Oak as the 
most picturesque of trees. He thus recommends 
to the artist a careful study of the various tints 
observable on its bark : — have often stood with 
admiration before an old forest Oak, examining 
the various tints which have enriched its furrowed 
stem. The genuine bark of an Oak is of an ash- 
colour, though it is difficult to distinguish any 
part of it from the mosses that overspread it ; for 
no Oak, I suppose, was ever without a greater or 
less proportion of these picturesque appendages. 
The lower parts, about the roots, are often pos- 
sessed bv that green veh'et moss which in a still 
ofreater degree commonly occupies the bole of the 
Beech ; though the beauty and brilhancy of it 



THE OAK. 



63 



lose much when in decay. As the trunk rises 
you" see the brimstone colour taking possession in 
patches. Of this there are two principal kinds : 
a smooth sort, which spreads like a scarf over the 
bark ; and a rougher sort, which hangs in little 
rich knots or fringes. I call it a brimstone hue, 
by w^ay of general distinction ; but it sometimes 
inclines to an olive, and sometimes to a light- 
green. We find also another species of moss of a 
dark -brown colour, inclining nearly to black ; an- 
other of an ashy colour, and another of a dingy 
yellow. We may observe also touches of red, and 
sometimes, but rarely, a bright yellow, which is 
like a gleam of sunshine ; and in many trees you 
will see one species growing upon another, the 
knotted brimstone-coloured fringe clinging to a 
lighter species, or the black softening into red. 
Strictly speaking, many of these excrescences, 
which I have mentioned under the general name 
of mosses, should have been distinguished by 
other names. All those, particularly which cling 
close to the bark of trees, and have a leprous 
appearance, are classed, I believe, by botanists, 
under the name of lichens ; others are called 
liver-worts. But all these excrescences, under 
whatever name distinguished, add a great rich- 
ness to trees ; and when they are blended harmo- 
niously, as is generally the case, the rough and 
furrowed trunk of an old Oak, adorned with these 
pleasing appendages, is an object which will long 
detain the picturesque eye." 

But with what a different eye would the tim- 
ber-merchant look on these hollow trunks, and 
blasted antlers, and mottled lichens ! He would 
see in them so much solid timber spoiled, so 



64 



THE OAK. 



many knees and elbows rendered useless, and 
would count the cost of clearing the bark of so 
many superficial feet of nuisances. But, for this 
we must not quarrel with him ; nor, in our love 
of Nature, forget her useful subserviency to the 
arts of civilized life. 

About the end of April the season for barking 
commences ; and to this process Oaks both old 
and young are equally subjected; those of from 
twenty to thirty years' growth, however, being 
preferred. Oak bark is occasionally used in me- 
dicine, and is employed also as a dye, but is most 
valuable for the principle called tannin, which is 
indispensable in the manufacture of leather. 
Every part of the tree, indeed, abounds in astrin- 
gent matter, and even the leaves and sawdust will 
tan leather, linen cloth, and netting or cordage, 
which is to be much exposed to the weather. 

Melancholy though the sight is, when, resort- 
ing to some favourite woodland haunt, one en- 
counters a dreary assemblage of naked wooden 
poles, instead of a grove of Oaks just budding 
into life ; " yet the various appendages of wood- 
cutting, piles of bark, and scattered boughs, and 
timber wains, are not unpleasing objects. The 
deep, hollow tone also of the woodman's axe, or 
of axes responsive to each other in different parts 
of the wood, are notes in full harmony with the 
scene, though their music is a knell. The fallen 
tree, also, lying with its white peeled branches 
on the ground, is not only beautiful in itself, but, 
if it be not scattered in too great profusion (for 
white is an unaccommodating hue), it forms an 
agreeable contrast with the living trees. But 
when we see it deprived of its beautiful ramifica- 



THE OAK. 



65 



tion^ squared, and sawn in lengths, as it some- 
times continues long to lie about the forest, it 
becomes an object of deformity; and we lament 
what it once was, without receiving any equiva- 
lent from its present state."* 

A due supply of timber for the use of the Navy 
has long been a matter of consequence. In the 
Report of the Commissioners of land-revenue re- 
specting timber, which was printed by order of 
the House of Commons in June 1812, it is stated 
that it requires three thousand loads of timber 
or two thousand well-grown Oak trees to build a 
seventy-four-gun ship. If we allow forty such 
trees to an acre, which is the highest number 
possible, even supposing the ground to be co- 
vered with trees all fit for naval purposes, the 
produce of fifty acres during a century will be 
required for a single seventy-four. For very 
many years, therefore, the Royal Forests, origin- 
ally set apart for the amusement of the chase, 
have been jealously preserved as nurseries for 
timber. Of these there are a great number scat- 
tered throughout the various counties of England. 
The majority, however, exist only in name, 
having given way to the plough, to pasturage, to 
ship -building, or to the iron-foundry. Of the 
few which remain, the Forest of Dean, and the 
New Forest, are most worthy of mention. The 
first of these is in Gloucestershire, and has always 
been a place of note. It is of large extent, being 
not less than twenty miles in length, and half as 
many in breadth ; and is separated from the rest 
of the county by the river Severn. The tim- 
ber of this having been formerly in great request 

* Gilpin's Forest Scenery, 

F 



66 



THE OAK. 



for the purposes of ship-building, Evelyn tells us 
that he heard, " that in the great expedition of 
1588, it was expressly enjoyned the Spanish com- 
manders of that signal Armada, that if, when 
landed, they should not be able to subdue our 
nation, and make good our conquest, they should 
yet be sure not to leave a tree standing in the 
Forest of Dean. It was like the policy of the 
Philistines, when the poor Israelites went down 
to their enemies' smiths to sharpen every man 
his tools : for they said, ' lest the Hebrews make 
them swords or spears ; ' so these, 4est the English 
build them ships and men-of-war.'" But though 
the Forest of Dean escaped this terrible denun- 
ciation, it was so effectually dismantled in the 
troublous times of Charles I., that on a survey 
made by order of Parliament in 1667, only two 
hundred trees were found standing. To repair 
these mischiefs, eleven thousand acres were im- 
mediately enclosed and planted ; and it is from 
these that the supply of the dock-yards is now 
principally obtained, averaging about a thousand 
loads a year. The riches of this Forest are not 
confined to the surface, there being large mines of 
iron and coal beneath nearly its whole extent.* 
Nearly fifteen thousand trees are annually de- 
livered to the free miners and colliers for the 
carrying on of their works. 

The New Forest in Hampshire was originally 
made a forest by William I,, in the year 1079, 
about thirteen years after the battle of Hastings, 
and is, indeed, the only forest in England whose 

* A well executed and beautiful model of the Forest of Dean may 
be seen in that interesting, but as yet little known exhibition, the 
Museum of Economic Geology, in Piccadilly. 



THE OAK. 



67 



origin can be traced. It took the denomination 
of New Forest, from its being an addition to the 
many forests ^Yhich the CroAvn abeady possessed, 
and which had formerly been appropriated in feu- 
dal times."* Its soil being peculiarly adapted to 
the growth of Oak, it has been for centuries con- 
sidered one of the great magazines for the Navy. 
Its resources were formerly considered inexhaus- 
tible, and enormous quantities of timber were 
taken away, but no care was taken to ensure a 
future supply by planting. Thus, in Charles the 
Second's time, the nation, being on the eve of a 
war with the Dutch, began to find themselves at 
a loss to supply the urgent demand for building 
materials. In 1664, Evelyn, at the request of the 
Royal Society, wrote his Sylva^ in which he en- 
forces the necessity of some extensive system of 
planting forest-trees. The result was, that in 1669 
the first royal mandate was issued for enclosing 
and planting a portion of the New Forest as a 
nursery for young Oaks ; in consequence of 
which," says Hunter, the spirit for planting 
increased to a high degree ; and there is reason 
to beheve that many of our ships, which, in the 
last war, gave laws to the whole world, were con- 
structed from Oaks planted at that time," In the 
reign of King William the Third, an act was 
passed empowering certain commissioners to en- 
close two thousand acres in the New Forest for 
the growth of timber, and two hundred more 
every year for the space of twenty years after- 
wards. Equally active measures have been 
adopted in the present century, so that the New- 
Forest bids fair to outlive the injudicious attacks 



* Gilpin. 



68 



THE OAK. 



of domestic friends, as the Forest of Dean did 
the fury of foreign enemies. 

In the New Forest formerly stood an Oak, from 
which the arrow glanced that killed William Rn- 
fus. Like the Cadenham Oak before mentioned, 
it came into leaf at Christmas, and, although it 
has long since disappeared, it is remarkable that 
a young tree, near the spot where it stood, is sub- 
ject to the same peculiarity. The veteran tree 
was paled round by the command of Charles II., 
in order to preserve it, and it stood until at least 
the commencement of the 18th century ; for in 
the year 1745, to mark the spot, a triangular stone 
was erected on it by Lord Delaware, on the three 
sides of which were the following inscriptions : — 
Here stood the Oak-tree on which an arrow, 
shot by Sir Walter Tyrrell at a stag, glanced and 
struck King Wilham 11. , surnamed Rufus, on the 
breast, of which stroke he instantly died, on the 
2nd of August, 1100." King William II., being 
thus slain, was laid in a cart belonging to one 
Purkess, and drawn from hence to Winchester, 
and buried in the cathedral church of that city." 

That the spot where an event so memorable 
happened might not hereafter be unknown, this 
stone was set up by John Lord Delaware, w^ho 
has seen the tree growing in this place."* This 
inscription is now^ nearly effaced. 

There is a particular interest connected with 
trees of great antiquity, which attaches itself to 
nothing else. A flourishing Oak in the \dgour 
of its age, furnished with a well-proportioned, 
tapering trunk, and with symmetrically-arranged 

* Gilpin. See Frontispiece. 



THE OAK. 



69 



branches^ and flinging its cliequered shade far and 
near over the verdant sward, is a beautiful object, 
and irresistibly draws the attention to itself. But 
it does not carry the mind of the spectator back 
to past events, — it does not talk with us about 
bygone ages, and scenes at which no man now 
living was present. And, if v/e think of its future 
fate, there is so much of uncertainty about that, 
so much of doubt as to the length of time for 
which it is destined to retain its position ; whether 
it will be laid low by the tempest, or by the vrood- 
man's axe, and if the latter, to what purposes it 
may be applied, that the mind can select nothing 
sufficiently definite to engage itself upon. The 
tan-yard, the saw-pit, and the baker's oven, are 
decidedly not subjects to dwell upon; and these, 
in fact, are the only passages in its history which 
can be predicted with certainty. But the case is 
very different with the uncouth monster on whom 
the destroyer has done all but his utmost. Though 
but a hollow shell, blasted above, and worm-eaten 
below, and indebted for its scanty verdure more 
to ferns and moss than to the feeble relics of life 
which yet remain in it ; it is a monument of the 
past more eloquent than buildings the most time- 
hallowed ; or, save one, than books of the most 
remote antiquity. It is noii^ a living tree, and it 
was the same thirty generations back. Yes ! a 
thousand years ago it was a stately tree : — when 
the present dynasty commenced it was older than 
the oldest men then alive, and it has lived through 
all the stirring events w^hich have taken place from 
that time to this, connecting the names of Scott 
and Wordsworth with those of Newton and Mil- 
ton, and Shakspeare, and these with Caxton and 



70 



THE OAK. 



Chaucer ; and having sprung from an acorn borne 
by a tree which perhaps flourished when our holy 
religion was preached in Palestine by the Saviour, 
whose coming was to banish from the earth all 
those barbarous rites which were then being en- 
acted beneath the shade of its branches. 

This is not all purely imaginary ; the evidence 
in favour of an antiquity nearly as great as that 
assumed being as conclusive as the necessarily 
imperfect records will admit. 

Close by the gate of the water- walk at Mag- 
dalen College in Oxford, grew an Oak, which 
perhaps stood there a sapling when Alfred the 
Great founded the University. This period only 
includes a space of nine hundred years, which is 
no great age for an Oak. It is a difficult matter 
indeed to ascertain the age of a tree. The age of 
a castle or abbey is the object of history ; even a 
common house is recorded by the families that 
built it. All these objects arrive at maturity in 
their youth, if I may so speak. But the tree, 
gradually completing its growth, is not worth re- 
cording in the early part of its existence. It is 
then only a common tree ; and afterwards, when 
it becomes remarkable for its age, all memory of 
its youth is lost. This tree, however, can almost 
produce historical evidence for the age assigned 
to it. About five hundred years after the thne of 
Alfred, Wilham of Wainfleet, Dr. Stukely tells 
us, expressly ordered his college to be founded 
near the Great Oak ; and an Oak could not, I 
think, be less than five hundred years of age to 
merit that title, together with the honour of fix- 
ing the site of a college. When the magnificence 
of Cardinal Wolsey erected that handsome tower 



THE OAK. 



71 



which is so ornamental to the whole building, this 
tree might probably be in the meridian of its 
glory, or rather, perhaps, it had attained a green 
old age. But it must have been manifestly in its 
decline at that memorable era when the tyranny 
of James gave the fellows of Magdalen so noble an 
opportunity of withstanding bigotry and supersti- 
tion. It was afterwards much injured in Charles 
the Second's time, when the present walks were 
laid out. Its roots were disturbed, and from that 
period it declined fast, and became reduced by 
degrees to little more than a mere trunk. The 
oldest members of the University can scarce recol- 
lect it in better plight. But the faithful records 
of history have handed dov/n its ancient dimen- 
sions. Through a space of sixteen yards on every 
side from its trunk, it once flung its boughs, and 
under its magnificent pavilion could have shel- 
tered with ease three thousand men, though in 
its decayed state it could for many years do little 
more than shelter some luckless individual whom 
the driving shower had overtaken in his evening 
walk. In the summer of the year 1788, this mag- 
nificent ruin fell to the ground, alarming the Col- 
lege with its rushing sound. It then appeared 
how precariously it had stood for many years. 
Its grand tap-root was decayed, and it had hold 
of the earth only by two or three roots, of which 
none was more than a couple of inches in dia- 
meter. From a part of its ruins a chair has been 
made for the President of the College, which 
will long continue its memory."* 

Among several celebrated Oaks in Windsor 
Forest^ Loudon mentions one called the King 

« * Gilpin. 



72 



THE OAK. 



Oak, ^^^vliich is said to have been a favourite 
tree of William tlie Conqueror, who made this a 
royal forest, and enacted laws for its preservation. 
This Oak, which stands near the enclosure of 
Cranbourn, is twenty-six feet in circumference at 
three feet from the ground. It is supposed to be 
the largest and oldest Oak in Windsor Forest, 
being above a thousand years old. It is quite 
hollow ; the space within is from seven to eight 
feet in diameter, and the entrance is about four 
feet and a half high, and two feet wide. ' We 
lunched in it,' says Professor Burnet, ^ Sept. 2nd, 
1829 : it would accommodate at least twenty 
persons with standing-room : and ten or twelve 
might sit down comfortably to dinner.' 

The Winfarthing Oak, in Xorfolk, claims an 
origin yet higher, and is still standing. A writer 
in the Gardener's Magazine gives the following 
account of this remarkable tree. Of its age I 
regret to be unable to give any correct data. It 
is said to have been called the ^ Old Oak' at the 
time of AVilliam the Conqueror, but upon what 
authority I could never learn. Nevertheless, the 
thing is not impossible, if the speculations of cer- 
tain miters on the age of trees be at all correct. 
Mr. South, in one of his letters to the Bath 
Society (vol. x.), calculates that an Oak tree 
forty-seven feet in circumference cannot be less 
than fifteen hundred years old; and Mr. Marsham 
calculated the Bentley Oak, from its girting thirty - 
four feet, to be of the same age.* Now aninscrip- 

* Lengthy and somewhat abstruse calculations have been made for 
ascertaining the age of a tree from the diameter of its trunk. They 
are not, however, much to be depended on, the rate of growth often _ 
varying to a very great degree even in trees planted at the same time 



THE OAK. 



73 



tion on a brass plate affixed to the Winfartliing 
Oak gives us the following as its dimensions : 
' This Oak, in circumference, at the extremities 
of the roots, is seventy feet, in the middle, forty 
feet, 1820." Now, I see no reason, if the size of 
the rind is to be any criterion of age, why the 
Winfar thing should not, at least, equal the Bent- 
ley Oak ; and if so, it would be upwards of seven 
hundred years old at the Conquest ; an age which 
might very well justify its then title of the ' Old 
Oak.' It is now a mere shell, a mighty ruin, 
bleached to a snowy white, but it is magnificent 
in its decay. The only mark of vitality it exhi- 
bits is on the south side, where a narrow strip of 
bark sends forth a few branches, which even now 
occasionally produce acorns. It is said to be very 
much altered of late ; but I own I did not think 
so when I saw it about a month ago (May 1836) ; 
and my acquaintance with the veteran is of more 
than forty years' standing : an important portion 
of my life, but a mere span of its own." 

In a glade of Hainhault Forest, in Essex, 
about a mile from Barkingside, stands an oak, 
which has been known through many centuries 
by the name of Fairlop. The tradition of the 
country traces it half-way up the Christian era. 
It is still a noble tree, though it has now^ suffered 
greatly from the depredations of time. About a 
yard from the ground, where its rough fluted stem 
is thirty-six feet in circumference, it divides into 

and in the same soil. The increase of diameter varies yet again when 
the trunk has become even partially hollow ; for in this case the pres- 
sure arising from the new wood which is deposited under the bark 
acts in an inward as well as an outward direction ; consequently the 
annual increase of diameter is retarded, though not in a known ratio. 



74 



THE OAK. 



eleven vast arms, yet not in the horizontal manner 
of an Oak, but in that of a Beech. Beneath its 
shade, which overspreads an area of three hun- 
dred feet in circuit, an annual fair has long been 
held on the 2nd of July, and no booth is suffered 
to be erected beyond the extent of its boughs. 
But as their extremities are now become sapless, 
and age is yearly curtailing their length, the li- 
berties of the fair seem to be in a very despond- 
ing condition. The honour, however, is great. 
But honours are often accompanied by inconve- 
niencies, and Fairlop has suffered from its honour- 
able distinctions. In the feasting that attends 
a fair, fires are often necessary, and no places 
seemed so proper to make them in as the hollow 
cavities formed by the heaving roots of the tree. 
This practice has brought a speedier decay on 
Fairlop than it might otherwise have suffered."* 

Phillips, in his Companion to the Orchard, adds 
the following notice of the same tree. This 
venerable Oak was cut down previous to the fair 
in 1820. The founder of this fair was a Mr. 
Daniel Day, commonly called the Good Day, w^ho 
was born in the parish of St. Mary Overy, in 1682 ; 
his father was an opulent brewer, but Mr. Day 
followed the business of a block and pump -maker 
in Wapping, and possessing a small estate in 
Essex, at no great distance from this remarkable 
tree, he used, on the first Friday in July, annu- 
ally to repair thither, having given his accustomed 
invitation to a party of his neighbours to accom- 
pany him, for the purpose of dining under the 
shade of its branches and leaves on beans and 
bacon. This benevolent as well as humorous 



* Gilpin. 



THE OAK. 75 

man never failed to pay his annual visit to the 
public bean-feast^ and as regularly provided seve- 
ral sacks of beans, with a proportionate quantity 
of bacon, v^hich he distributed from the trunk of 
the tree to the persons there assembled. A few 
years before the decease of Mr. Day (in 1767), 
his favourite Oak lost a large limb, out of which 
he procured a coffin to be made for his own inter- 
ment. We have been informed that the follow- 
ing circumstance gave rise to the name of Fairlop, 
bestowed upon this celebrated Oak. Some of 
Mr. Day's friends having promised that he should 
be buried in a coffin made from that tree, lopped 
off one of the branches, for which trespass an 
action was brought against the party, fortunately 
for whom some flaw was found in the pleadings, 
and the plaintiff was non-suited. It was, how- 
ever, proved that the fact committed was not in- 
jurious to the tree, but a fair lop. As lately as 
1794, this venerable Oak, in the meridian of the 
day, shadowed an acre of ground, although then 
greatly decayed." 

Some years before its fall Mr. Forsyth's com- 
position was applied to its decayed branches to 
preserve it from future injury ; when a board was 
affixed to one of its limbs, bearing the following 
inscription , — All good foresters are requested 
not to hurt this old tree, a plaster having been 
lately applied to his wounds." In the year 1805 
its trunk took fire, in consequence of the careless- 
ness of a party of cricketers, who had spent the 
day in its vicinity, and had left a fire burning too ' 
near it. The fire was discovered the same even- 
ing ; and although a number of persons did their 
utmost to extinguish the flames, it continued 



76 



THE OAK. 



burning till morning. This untoward accident so 
weakened it, that, as Professor Burnet informs 
us, the high winds of February, 1820, stretched 
this forest patriarch on the ground, after having 
endured the storms of perhaps one thousand win- 
ters. Its remains were purchased by a builder ; 
and from a portion thereof the pulpit and read- 
ing-desk in the new church, St. Pancras, were 
constructed : they are beautiful specimens of Bri- 
tish Oak, and will long preserve the recollection 
of this memorable tree." The largest Oak on 
record grew in Dorsetshire. It was called Da- 
mory's Oak, and was used as an ale-house. It 
was sixty-eight feet in circumference, and the 
room formed in it was sixteen feet in length. 
This tree was blown down in 1703. 

The celebrated Chapel-Oak of AUonville in the 
Pays de Caux, in France, which is still standing, 
measures at its base thirty-five feet in circum- 
ference, and at six feet above the level of the 
ground it is twenty -six feet in girth. It is hol- 
low, and the interior is fitted up as a chapel. 
This transformation was effected in 1696. The 
computed age of the tree is between eight and 
nine centuries. 

The largest Oak now existing, of which I can 
find any account, is the Cowthorpe Oak, near 
Wetherby in Yorkshire. ?)f this tree a spirited 
engraving is given in Hunter's Evelyn's Sylva,* 
together with the following description. With- 
in three feet of the surface it measures sixteen 
yards in circumference, and close by the ground, 
twenty-six yards. Its height is about eighty feet, 
and its principal limb extends sixteen yards from 

* Vol. ii. p. 197. 



THE OAK. 



77 



the bole. Throughout the whole tree the foliage 
is extremely thin^ so that the anatomy of the 
ancient branches may be distinctly seen in the 
height of summer. This venerable tree must 
once have been the pride of the forest, but now 

" the gray moss mars his rime, 

His bare boughs are beaten Tvdth stormes, 
His top is bald and wasted with wormes, 
His honour decayed, his branches sere." 

Spenser. 

The drawing of this tree was made in 1776, and 
the description published ten years later. The 
following account was sent to Loudon in 1829 : — 

On a stranger's first observing the tree he is 
struck with the majestic appearance of its ruined 
and riven-looking dead branches, which in all di- 
rections appear above the luxuriant foliage of the 
lateral and lower arms of the tree. In 1722 one 
of the side-branches was blown down in a violent 
gale of wind, and, on being accurately measured, 
was found to contain upwards of five tons of wood. 
The largest of the living branches at present 
extends about forty-eight feet from the trunk ; 
and its circumference, at about one yard from 
the giant bole, is eight feet six inches. Three 
of the living branches are propped by substantial 
poles, resting upon stone pedestals. The diameter 
in the hollow part at the bottom is nine feet ten 
inches : the greatest height of the dead branches is 
about fifty-six feet. It is evidently of very great 
antiquity, as all tradition represents it as a very 
old tree." The circle occupied by the Cow- 
thorpe Oak," says Professor Burnet, where the 
bottom of its trunk meets the earth, exceeds the 
ground-plot of that majestic column of which an 



78 



THE OAK. 



Oak is confessed to have been the prototype, viz., 
Smeaton's Eddystone light-house. Sections of 
the trunk of the one would, at several heights, 
nearly correspond with sections of the curved and 
cylindrical portions of the shaft of the other. 
Arthur's round table would form an entire roof, 
or projecting capital, for the lighthouse : indeed, 
upon this table might be built a round church 
as large as that of St. Lawrence, in the Isle of 
Wight, and space to spare ; so that, if the extent 
of the sap-wood be added, or the ground-plot of 
the Cowthorpe Oak be substituted for Arthur's 
table, there w^ould be plenty of room, not only to 
build such a parish church, but to allow space for 
a small cemetery beside it. Indeed," continued 
Burnet, I w^ould merely observe that St. Bar- 
tholomew's, in the hamlet of Kingsland, between 
London and Hackney, which, beside the ordinary 
furniture of a place of religious worship, has pews 
and seats for one hundred and twenty persons, is 
nearly nine feet less in width, and only seventeen 
inches more in length, than the ground-plot of 
the Cowthorpe Oak. In fact, the tree occupies 
upwards of thirty square feet more than does the 
chapel." 

The following affecting story is told by White : 
— In the centre of Josel's wood there formerly 
stood an Oak, which, though stately and tall on 
the whole, bulged out into a large excrescence 
about the middle of the stem. On this a pair of 
ravens had fixed their residence for such a series 
of years that the Oak was distinguished by the 
title of the Raven Tree. Many were the attempts 
of the neighbouring youths to get at this eyry ; 
the difficulty whetted their inclinations, and each 



THE OAK. 



79 



was ambitious of surmounting the arduous task. 
But when they arrived at the sweUing, it jutted 
out so in their way, and was so far beyond their 
grasp, that the most daring lads w^ere awed, and 
acknowledged the undertaking to be too hazard- 
ous. So the ravens built on, nest upon nest, in 
perfect security, till the fatal day arrived in which 
the wood was to be levelled. It was in the 
month of February, when those birds usually sit. 
The saw was applied to the butt, the wedges were 
inserted into the opening. The woods echoed to 
the heavy blows of the beetle, or mallet ; the tree 
nodded to its fall, but still the dam sat on. At 
last, when it gave w^ay, the bird was flung from 
her nest ; and, though parental affection deserved 
a better fate, was whipped dowTi by the twigs, 
which brought her dead to the ground."* 

The Oaks most remarkable for their horizontal 
expansion, are, according to Loudon, the follow- 
ing : " The Three-shire Oak, near Worksop, w^as 
so situated, that it covered part of the three coun- 
ties of York, Nottingham, and Derby, and drip- 
ped over seven hundi'ed and seventy-seven square 
yards. An Oak between Newnham Courtney 
and Clifton shaded a circumference of five hun- 
dred and sixty yards of ground, under which two 
thousand four hundred and twenty men might 
have commodiously taken shelter. The immense 
Spread Oak in Worksop Park, near the white 
gate, gave an extent, between the ends of its 
opposite branches, of an hundred and eighty feet. 
It dripped over an area of nearly three thousand 
square yards, w^hich is above half an acre, and 
would have afforded shelter to a regiment of 

* White's Natural History of Selbome. 



80 



THE OAIC. 



nearly a thousand horse. The Oakley Oak, now 
growing on an estate of the Duke of Bedford, has 
a head of an hundred and ten feet in diameter. 
The Oak called Rohur Britannicum, in the Park 
at Rycote, is said to have been extensive enough 
to cover five thousand men ; and at EUerslie, in 
Renfrewshire, the native village of the hero 
Wallace, there is still standing ^the large Oak 
tree,' among the branches of which it is said that 
he and three hundred of his men hid themselves 
from the English." 

In addition to this last, there are many old 
Oaks which possess a legendary interest. Gilpin 
tells us that, in Torwood, in the county of Stir- 
ling, upon a little knoll, stands at this time the 
ruins of an Oak, which is supposed to be the larg- 
est tree that ever grew in Scotland. The trunk 
of it is now wholly decayed and hollow, but it is 
evident from what remains, that its diameter could 
not have been less than eleven or twelve feet. 
What its age may be, is matter only of conjecture ; 
but, from some circumstances, it is probably a tree 
of great antiquity. The little knoll it stands on 
is surrounded by a swamp, over which a causeway 
leads to the tree, or rather to the circle which 
seems to have been round it. The vestiges of 
this circle, as well as of the causeway, bear a plain 
resemblance to those works which are commonly 
attributed to the Druids ; so that it is probable 
this tree was a scene of worship belonging to those 
heathen priests. But the credit of it does not 
depend on the dubious vestiges of Druid anti- 
quity. In a later scene of greater importance (if 
tradition ever be the vehicle of truth), it bore a 
great share. When that illustrious hero, William 



THE OAK. 



81 



Wallace, roused the spirit of the Scotch nation to 
oppose the tyranny of Edward, he often chose the 
solitude of Torwood as a place of rendezvous for 
his army. Here he concealed his numbers and 
his designs, sallying out suddenly on the enemy's 
garrisons, and retreating as suddenly when he 
feared to be overpowered. "While his army lay 
in these woods, the Oak which we are now com- 
memorating was commonly his head-quarters. 
Here the hero generally slept ; its hollow trunk 
being capacious enough to afford shelter, not only 
to himself, but to several of his officers. This 
tree has ever since been known by the name of 
Wallace Tree, by which name it may be easily 
found in Torwood to this day." 

Another interesting relic is the Parliament 
Oak, which grows in Clipstone Park, and takes 
its name from the fact of a Parliamicnt having 
been held under it, by Edward I., in 1290. 

Queen Ehzabeth's Oak, at Huntingfield, in 
Suffolk, measures thirty -four feet in girth at five 
feet from the ground. Queen Elizabeth is said 
to have been entertained at the old mansion by 
Lord Hunsdon, and to have enjoyed the pleasures 
of the chase in rural majesty. The great hall 
was built round six straight massy Oaks, which 
originally upheld the roof, as they grew ; and 
upon these the foresters and yeomen of the guard 
used to hang their nets, cross-bows, hunting-poles, 
and other implements of the chase. Elizabeth is 
said to have been much pleased with the retire- 
ment of this park, filled with tall and massy tim- 
ber-trees, but particularly "with the Oak, w^hich 
ever afterwards bore the appellation of the Queen's 
Oak. It stood about two bow-shots from the old 

G 



82 



THE OAK. 



romantic hall ; and tradition records, that Eliza- 
beth shot a buck, with her own royal hand, from 
this tree."* 

Evelyn, who wrote his Sylva in the reign of 
Charl-es 11. , thus dedicated the Fourth Edition to 
that Monarch. To you then, Royal Sir, does 
this Fourth Edition continue its humble addresses, 
since you are our Xemorensis Rex: as having once 
had your temple, and court too, under that sacred 
Oak which you consecrated ^vith your presence, 
and we celebrate, with just acknowledgement to 
God, for your preservation." 

The tree here alluded to, called the Royal 
Oak," formerly stood at Boscobel, in Shropshire, 
but was destroyed soon after it attained its noto- 
riety by the ill-judged curiosity of the Royalists. 
For the same author, speaking of an Oak which 
put forth its buds about Christmas, says : — King 
James went to visit it, and caused benches to be 
placed about it ; which giving it reputation, the 
people never left hackmg of the boughs and bark 
till they killed the tree : as I am told they have 
served that famous Oak near White-Lady's, which 
hid and protected our late Monarch from being 
discovered and taken by the rebel soldiers who 
were sent to find him, after his almost miraculous 
escape at the battle of Worcester." In the course 
of this spoliation a huge bulk of timber, consist- 
ing of many loads, was carried away in handfuls. 
Several saplings were raised in different parts of 
the country from its acorns, one of which grew 
near St. James's Palace, where Marlborough 
House now stands ; and there was another in the 



* Lauder's Gilpin. 



THE OAK. 



83 



Botanic Garden, Chelsea. The former has been 
long since felled ; and of the latter even the recol- 
lection seems now almost lost. 

Through the kindness of the Rev. J. Bale, 
Curate of Donington, the parish in which the 
Boscobel Oak stands, I am enabled to lay before 
my readers a full and authentic account of a tree, 
which, from its connexion with one of the most 
important events in English History, will always 
be remembered with interest. 

On a single printed leaf which is pasted in at 
the end of one of the Parish Registers of Doning- 
ton, is the following note, in the handvvTiting of 
the late Rector, Dr. Woodhouse : Extracts 
from the Philosophical Transactions^ vol, 5, part 
2nd, chap. 3, written hy the Rev, George Plaxton, 
Rector of Donington {and Kinyiardsey) from 1690 
to 1703." Then follows the type. " The Royal 
Oak was a fair spreading tree ; the boughs of it all 
lined and covered with ivy. Here, in the thick of 
these boughs, the King sat in the day-time, with 
Colonel Carlos, and in the night lodged in Bosco- 
bel House ; so that they are strangely mistaken 
who judged it an old hollow Oak, whereas it was 
a gay and flourishing tree surrounded with a great 
many more, and, as I remember in Mr. Evelyn's 
History of Medals, you have one of King James 
L or Charles I. where there is a fine spread Oak 
with this epigraph, ^ Seris nepotibus umbra,' 
which I leave to your thoughts. * * * The poor 
remains of the Royal Oak are now fenced in by a 
handsome brick wall, at the charge of Basil Fitz- 
herbert, Esq., with this inscription over the gate, 
upon a blue stone in letters of gold : 



84 



THE OAK. 



Felicissimam arborem quam in asylum 
potentissimi regis Caroli Secundi Deus Opt. Max. 
per quern reges regnant hie crescere 

voluit tam in perpetuam rei tantse 
memoriam quam in specimen firmae 
in reges fidei muro cinctam 
posteris commendant Bazilius 
et Jana Fitzherbert. 
Quercus arnica Jovi.* 

'Twas put up about twenty or thirty years 
ago ; but the place deserved a better memorial. I 
have writ it in such lines as they have cut it, and 
as the letters now stand ; a few years will ruine 
both the wall and the inscription." 

The emblematical medal my good friend al- 
ludes to is the XLVii. in Mr. Evelyn's Numis- 
mata, which King Charles caused to be stamped 
in honour of the installation of his son ; whereupon 
is the Royal Oak under a Prince's coronet, over- 
spreading subnascent trees and young suckers." 

In the year 1812, or thereabouts, and before he 
was aware of Mr. Plaxton's notice, Mr. Dale dis- 
covered portions of the above inscription on a 
blue stone, in letters of gold," among the long and 
neglected grass on the Mount in Boscobel Garden. 
After spending some time in arranging the frag- 
ments, he communicated the discovery to the oc- 
cupants of the house, who appear to have taken 
little interest in the relic. The house and grounds 
have passed into other hands, and the fragments 
of the stone in all probability lie buried beneath 
the present garden walks, which were laid out 

* Translation. — This most highly favoured tree, planted by the 
God through whom kings reign to afford shelter to his Majesty King 
Charles the Second, was enclosed with a wall by Basil and Jane 
Fitzherbert, as well to preserve to posterity a memorial of the 
auspicious event as to be a token of their own steadfast loyalty. 



THE OAK. 



85 



by the present proprietor after the pattern of 
those which existed in the time of Charles II. 
Of the tree itself very few, and these imperfect, 
records remain. Old Plaxton speaks of it as a 
fair spreading tree, the boughs of it all lined and 
covered with ivy," and that in the thick of it the 
King and Carlos sat. This agrees well with the 
description of it which the King himself gives in 
his narrative, A great Oak that had been lopped 
some three or four years before, and, being growTi 
out again very bushy and thick, could not be seen 
through ; and here we staid all the day." This 
would be an excellent hiding-place ; for, says Mr. 
Dale, I have frequently observed that an old 
Pollard Oak, standing on a bank and overhanging 
the road between the Churches of Albrighton and 
Donington, about one hundred yards from each, 
would afford a secure retreat for two or three per- 
sons from the observation of all passers by." 

It will be seen by the extract from Evelyn's 
Sylva, that in 1662 it had ceased to be a living 
monmnent of the event to which it owes its cele- 
brity. Not many years after, its poor remains 
were fenced in by a handsome brick wall ; " but 
all in vain. Every vestige of the original tree has 
disappeared from the spot for more than a cen- 
tury. Mr. Dale thinks, from inquiries made in 
the vicinity from persons whose age, if they were 
now alive, would exceed a hundred, that the last 
remnants w^ere taken away about the year 1734. 

The handsome brick w^all above alluded to 
stood until the year 1817, having been repaired 
in 1787 by Basil and Eliza Fitzherbert, who also 
attached a new inscription. Mr. Dale has been 
unable to discover any written account of the 



86 



THE OAK. 



second tree tlius enclosed. Bv o-eneral tradition, 
however, it sprung from an acorn of the Royal 
Oak, and this is credible enough : for whoever 
took the pains to rear young trees for St. James's 
Park and the Chelsea Gardens, doubtless did all 
in his power to perpetuate the race on the spot 
v»'here the event took place. From the inscription 
of 17ST, it would seem that Basil and Eliza Fitz- 
herbert believed the tree then standing to have 
been the identical one in which the Sovereign 
took shelter. But, although they were mistaken 
in this respect, it must have attained a consider- 
able size, or they could not have fallen into such 
an error. From this and other circumstances it 
appears tolerably certain that the tree now stand- 
ing is the immediate descendant of the Royal Oak, 
and that it was planted about the time of the 
Restoration in 1660, as nearly in the same site as 
the remains of the old tree would allow, some of 
the old people alluded to above recollecting that it 
did not stand in the centre of the old enclosui'e. 

The present Royal Oak, however, is now rapidly 
following its predecessor to decay. Xo casual ob- 
server would, from its appearance, suspect that, 
only hfty years ago, its branches spread over a 
spacious circumference, far beyond the wall, reach- 
ing to vithin a few feet of the ground, and so um- 
brageous that about that time a party of roguish 
rustics concealed themselves under its shade whilst 
on the watch for an outlying deer, as it came trot- 
ting up the green sward to browse on the tillage. 
Soon after that period, however, it suifered se- 
verely from the tempests, especially on one occa- 
sion about forty years ago. The branches, before 
they had lost their leaves, were loaded with snow. 



THE OAK. 



87 



which became partially frozen^ so that^ when the 
wind got up, there w^as such a terrific crashing and 
mangling of its limbs that not less than a w^aggon- 
load and a half were carried to the wood-pile^ and 
it appears never to have recovered from the effects 
of this unseasonable snow-storm ; though it was 
observed at the time that other Oaks in the neigh- 
bourhood suffered comparatively little damage. 
Mr. Dale thinks, with reason, that having been 
cooped up for more than a hundred years within 
high walls, its timber did not acquire the hardness 
and toughness which a free exposure to the air 
would have given it. In 1817 the wall w^as taken 
down and iron palisades erected in its stead ; but 
the remedy was applied too late. On its exposure 
several holes in the trunk were discovered, w^hich, 
as well as others which followed the tearing off of 
its arms, were covered with lead, but without be- 
neficial result. The over-nursed giant, which 
might under happier circumstances have now been 
in the pride of its strength, assmnes yearly a 
more faded face and form ; its leafy branches, 
in place of their former graceful sweep towards 
the ground, are contracting in circumference, so 
that now the low^est of them is not less than 
twenty feet from the earth. For the last thirty 
years it has been a shy bearer, not bringing 
acorns to perfection oftener than once in eight or 
ten years. About ten years ago Mr. Dale gather- 
ed a few, expecting they would be the last crop 
of ripe fruit. The seasons in the interval between 
that time and 1844 produced scarcely a handful 
of acorns each, none of which vegetated. The un- 
usual heat and dryness of that summer, which, it 
is said, produced generally a larger crop of acorns 



88 



THE OAK. 



than is ever remembered, revived its drooping 
powers, and it bore two or three pecks. There 
is not any danger," Mr. Dale says, "of the race 
of the present Royal Oak becoming extinct, 
it having already double as many authenticated 
descendants as King Priam had. I was myself 
the tutor of some scores of them in the year 
1834-5, and have got several of them good appoint- 
ments at the seats of Lord Dungannon, in Den- 
bighshire, Sir Astley Cooper, in Hertfordshire, 
&c. More than thirty young plants, the produce 
of 1834, were this year planted upon the glebe 
at Albrighton, and a plentiful crop has been 
reared from the acorns of 1844. The largest known 
descendant of the present Royal Oak was planted* 

* The inscription attached to the present tree by the proprietor of 
the Boscohel estate, Miss Evans, is as follows : 
Felicissimam arborem, 
quam in asylum potentissimi Regis Caroli II. 
Deus Optimus Maximus per quern reges regnant 
hie crescere voluit, 
tarn in perpetuam rei tanta? memoriam, 
quam in specimen firmae in reges fidei, 
miiro cinctam posteris commendarunt 
Basilius et Jana Fitzherbert : 
quod pietatis monimentum vetustate coUapsum 
patemamm ^irtutum hseredes 
et ayitffi in principes fidei Eemulatores 
in integrum restituerunt 
Basilius et Eliza Fitzherbert, 
iiii Cal. Junii, A.S. MDCCLXXXVII. 
Qua ex arbore banc arborem, uti fertur, ortam 
ferreis his, quae hodie sunt, repagulis 
circummimivit 
ejusdem hujusce agri possessor, 
eodemque erga reges animo praedita, 
Francesca Evans, 
A. D. MDC CCX VII. 

The tablet, bearing this inscription, was set up on the 2.5th Mav, 
1845. 



THE OAK. 



89 



by the late Rector, Dr. Woodhouse, Dean of 
Lichfield, about seventy years ago. It stands one 
hundred and thirty-two yards from the N. E. 
angle of the Chancel of the Church at Doning- 
ton, and measures three feet nine inches in dia- 
meter at four feet from the ground." 

Some notion of the value of a well-grown Oak 
in its prime may be formed from the following 
account of the felling, in the year 1758, of a tree 
in Langley Wood, on the borders of the new 
Forest, and of another in Monmouthshire. The 
former of these, Mr. South tells us, stood singly 
in the Wood, and extended its massive branches 
near forty feet each way. Its head was all knees 
and crooks, aptly suited to naval purposes ; its 
bole or shaft was short, not exceeding twenty feet 
in length ; but it was full six feet in diameter at 
the top, and perfectly sound. It was felled in an 
unusual manner for the preservation of its crooks, 
which were cut off one by one whilst the tree was 
standing, and lowered by tackles, to prevent their 
breaking. The two largest arms were sawed off 
at such distances from the bole as to make first- 
rate knees ; scaffolds were then erected, and two 
pit-saws being braced together, the body was first 
cut across, half through, at the bottom, and then 
sawed down the middle, perpendicularly, between 
the two stumps of arms that had been left, at the 
end of one of which stood a perpendicular bough, 
bigger than most timber-trees. To prevent this 
being injured, a bed was made of some hundreds 
of faggots to catch it when it fell. This half was 
so weighty that it crushed a new timber-carriage 
all to pieces the instant it was lodged upon it ; 
and, none in the country being found strong 



90 



THE OAK. 



enough, tlie King's carriage was sent purposely 
from Portsmouth to convey it to the Dock-yard. 
This tree was sold in the first place for 40/. ; was 
bought of that purchaser by a timber-merchant for 
100/,j who is supposed to have cleared 100/. more ; 
which he might very well do, for the contents 
amounted to thirty-two loads of hewed timber, 
which, at half-a-crown a foot — no unusual price 
for naval crooks — amounts to 200/. precisely, be- 
sides faggots, &c., sufiicient to defray the expenses. 
The breadth of the tree across, near the ground, 
where it was cut, was twelve feet, and it had 
above three hundred rings of annual growth." 

The Gelonos Oak, which was cut do^Mi in 
1810, grew^ about four miles from Newport, in 
Momnouthshire, The main trunk was ten feet 
long, and produced four hundred and fifty cubic 
feet of timber ; one limb, three hundred and fifty- 
five feet ; one ditto, four hundred and seventy- 
two feet ; one ditto, one hundred and thirteen 
feet ; and six other limbs of inferior size averaged 
ninety-three feet each, making a total of two 
thousand four hundred and twenty-six feet of 
convertible timber. The bark was estimated at 
six tons ; but, as some of the very heavy body- 
bark w^as stolen out of the barge at Newport, the 
exact weight is not known. Five men were 
twenty days stripping and cutting down this tree ; 
and two sawyers were five months converting it, 
Sundays excepted. The main trunk was nine 
and a half feet in diameter ; and, in sawing it 
through, a stone was discovered six feet from the 
ground, above a yard in the body of the tree, 
through which the saw cut. The stone was about 
six inches in diameter, and was completely shut 



THE OAK. 



91 



in ; but around it there was not the least symp- 
tom of decay. The rings in the butt were care- 
fully counted, and amounted to upwards of four 
hundred in number ; a convincing proof that this 
tree was in an improving state for upwards of four 
hundred years ; and, as the ends of some of its 
branches were decayed and had dropped off, it is 
presumed that it had stood a great number of 
years after it had attained maturity. The bark 
of this tree, Burnet says, was sold by the mer- 
chant for the scarcely credible sum of 200L This 
Oak was purchased for 100 guineas, under the 
apprehension of its being unsound ; but Burnet 
tells us that it was resold while standing for 
405/., and that the cost of converting it was 82/., 
amounting altogether to 487/. ; it was subse- 
quently resold for 675/. There were at least 
four hundred rings or traces of annular growth 
within its mighty trunk."* 

There yet remains one Oak to be mentioned 
which, if not so celebrated as any of the forego- 
ing for size and expansion, is yet well worthy of 
note, as bearing testimony to the piety of our 
forefathers. This is the Gospel Oak, a boundary 
Oak which divides the parishes of Stoneleigh and 
Baginton. The name is common to many other 
trees, and is derived from the custom of peram- 
bulating the bounds of a parish on Rogation days 
by the inhabitants, in order that the localities 
might be impressed on the memories of the young. 
The minister, accompanied by the Churchwardens, 
took the lead, and stopped at remarkable spots 
and trees to recite passages from the Gospel, the 

* The account of this tree is furnished by Loudon (Arboretum 
Britannicum, p. 1777), being compiled from various sources. 



92 



THE OAK. 



103rd and 104tli Psalms, with the litany and suf- 
frages, and Homily of Thanksgiving. 

There were in my remembrance/' says Eve- 
lyn, " certain prayers, litanies, and collects, so- 
lemnly used by the parish minister in the field, 
at the limits of their perambulations on the Ro- 
gation days, from an ancient and laudable custom 
of above one thousand years, introduced by Avi- 
tus, the pious Bishop of Vienna, in a great dearth, 
unseasonable weather, and other calamities (how- 
ever in tract of time abused by many gross super- 
stitions, and insignificant rites, in imitation of the 
Pagan Robigalia), upon which days, about the 
Ascension and beginning of Spring especially, 
prayers were made, as well deprecatory of epide- 
mical evils, amongst which blasts and smut of 
corn were none of the least, as supplicatory for 
propitious seasons and blessings on the fruits of 
the earth. Whether there was any peculiar ofiice, 
besides those of Ember-weeks, appointed, I do 
not know ; but the pious and learned Bishop 
of Winchester (Andrews) has, in his Devotions, 
left us a prayer so apposite and comprehensive i 
for these emergencies, that I cannot forbear the ' 
recital. 

Remember, O Lord, to renew the year with 
thy goodness, and the season with a promising 
temper ; for the eyes of all wait upon Thee, O 
Lord ; Thou givest them meat ; Thou openest 
thy hand, and fiUest all things living with thy 
bounty. Vouchsafe, therefore, O Lord, the bless- 
ings of the heavens, and the dews from above: 
the blessings of the springs, and the deep from 
beneath : the returns of the sun, the conjunctions 
of the moon : the benefit of the rising mountains, 



THE OAK. 



93 



and the lasting hills : the fulness of the earth, 
and all that breed therein : 



A fruitful season, 
Temperate air, 
Plenty of corn, 
Abundance of fruits. 
Health of body, and 
Peaceable times ; 
Good and wise government, 
Prudent counsels. 



Just laws. 

Righteous judgments, 

Loyal obedience. 

Due execution of justice, 

Sufficient store for life, 

Happy births, 

Good and fair plenty. 

Breeding and institution of children, 



that our sons may grow up as the young plants, 
and our daughters may be as the polished corners 
of the temple : that our garners may be full and 
plenteous with all manner of store : that our 
sheep may bring forth thousands : that our oxen 
may be strong to labour : that there be no decay: 
no leading into captivity : no complaining in our 
streets : but that every man may sit under his 
own vine, and under his own fig-tree, in thankful- 
ness to Thee : sobriety, and charity to his neigh- 
bour : and in whatsoever state Thou wilt have 
him, therewith to be contented : and this for 
Jesus Christ his sake, to whom be glory for 
ever. Amen." 




THE EVERGREEN OAK. 



THE ILEX, EVERGREEN OAK, 
OR HOLM-OAK. 



QuERcus Ilex. 

Natural Order — Amentace^. 
Class — MoNOECiA. Order — Polyandria. 

The Ilex is not a native of Great Britain ; nor, 
although it flourishes and becomes a large tree in 
congenial situations, is it likely that it will ever 
become so far naturalized as to propagate itself to 
any extent. Nevertheless, as an ornament to the 
landscape it is a great acquisition, affording in 
summer, with its sombre foliage, a pleasing con- 
trast to the brighter tints of every other tree in 
the neighbourhood, and no less valuable when the 
deciduous trees have thrown off their perishable 
garniture, and wisely prepared themselves to 
encounter the storms of winter by clearing them- 
selves of what would oppose their boisterous pro- 
gress. The Ilex, too, will stand the sea-breeze un- 
injured, and thrives better than most other ever- 
greens in the vicinity of cities where it is exposed 
to the effects of coal-smoke. For all these reasons, 
therefore, now that more attention is paid to the 
subject of planting than ever was before, man will 
in all probability do for it what Nature refuses to 
perform, and in all artificial plantations it will al- 
ways be a favourite addition to the woodland scene. 

It is a fellow-countryman of the Latin Classic 
Poets, from whom it has received frequent and 



96 



EVERGREEN OAK. 



honourable mention. Even with us, it attains a 
considerable size ; but in the milder climates of 
Italy, Spain, &c., it becomes a large tree, and 
reaches an age equal to that of some of our most 
venerable Oaks. Hence it not unfrequently ac- 
quired an historical interest ; and for this reason 
perhaps, more than for its picturesque beauty, it 
was made the theme of poetic song. The Roman 
naturalist, Pliny, who flourished in the first cen- 
tury of the Christian Era, mentions a tree growing 
in the Vatican, which claimed a higher antiquity 
than Rome itself. It had brazen letters in the 
ancient Etruscan characters aflixed to its trunk, 
from which it would appear, that before the Ro- 
man name was known it was a sacred tree. Its 
age must therefore have been 800 years at least. 
Three others are mentioned by the same author, 
growing at Tibur, which tradition made to be 
older than Tiburtus, who founded that city 1200 
years B.C. Lowth considers the TeiUtree of Scrip- 
ture to be identical with the Ilex, which abounds 
in many parts of Palestine ; and it is more than 
probable that the Oak of the Holy Scriptures is 
either this, or some allied species of Quercus. 

The Ilex was introduced into England pre- 
viously to 1580 ; but it was then a great rarity, 
and little thought of. In Italy it is the prevailing 
evergreen, and in Sicily it abounds on the hills 
and all along the coast, ascending Mount Etna to 
an elevation of 3200 feet. It is easily propagated 
from the acorn, but is very impatient of being 
transplanted, owing to its sending its long roots 
perpendicularly downwards, which are furnished 
with but few rootlets, save at the extremities, and 
if these are injured, the young plant dies. This 



EVERGREEN OAK. 



97 



difficulty is obviated by sowing the acorns either 
in the spot Vfhere the trees are destined to stand, 
or by confining their roots in pots until they are 
required for planting. During their early stage 
they grow with considerable rapidity, but after- 
wards increase much more slowly. The bark is 
even, and of a light colour ; the leaves of a dark 
bluish-green above, and more or less do^ray be- 
neath, the younger shoots being as remarkable for 
their light hue as the full-grown tree is for the 
characteristic sombreness of its foliage. The shape 
of the leaf varies greatly in different individuals, 
and even not unfrequently on the same tree, being 
sometimes scarcely notched at all, at other times 
deeply serrated, and at others quite prickly. It 
is this last variety which has procured for it the 
name of Holm Oak." It also resembles the 
Hohn or Holly-tree, in having its most prickly 
leaves on the lowest branches. The acorn, which 
does not arrive at perfection until the second year, 
resembles that of the Oak, but is somewhat more 
slender, and the cup is scaly. Some trees bear 
sweet and edible acorns ; those produced by others 
are bitter, and both kinds are sometimies to be 
found on the same tree. An allied species, Quer- 
cus gramuntia, which is so like the Ilex as to have 
been thought formerly merely a variety of the 
same tree, bears acorns, which when in perfection 
are as good as a chestnut, or even superior to it. 
These, according to Capt. S. C. Cook, are ^^the 
edible acorns of the ancients, which they believed 
fattened the tunny fish on their passage from the 
ocean to the Mediterranean : a fable, only prov- 
ing that the acorns grew on the delicious shores 
and rocks of Andalusia, which, unhappily, is no 

H 



98 



EVERGREEN OAK. 



longer the case. I have frequently seen them 
produced by hidividuals, and offered to the com- 
pany, as bon-bons are in some countries, ^^-ith a 
sort of apology for their small intrinsic value." 

The wood of the Ilex is dark, close-grained, 
heavy, and very hard. It is also very durable and 
flexible, and, says Eveljoi, is serviceable for 
many uses, as stocks of tools, mallet-heads, mall- 
balls, chairs, axle-trees, wedges, beetles, pms, and, 
above all, for pahsadoes, and in fortifications. 
Besides, it affords so good fuel, that it supplies 
all Spain almost with the best and most lasting 
of charcoals in vast abundance." Modern writers 
on the subject confirm this account, and recom- 
mend also its employment in ship-building. 

The largest Ilex in the vicinity of London 
stands in the garden of Fulham Palace, and was 
planted probably by Bishop Compton ; but this 
tree attains its greatest size in the south of En- 
gland. Loudon mentions a tree at Mamhead in 
Devonshire, eighty-five feet high, the circumfe- 
rence of the trunk being eleven feet ; and another 
at the same place fifty-five feet high, with a trunk 
twenty-two feet in circumference. At Mount 
Edgecumbe, in Devonshire, there are some very 
beautiful Ilex-trees growing within a few hun- 
dred yards of the sea-shore ; and at Clowance, 
in Cornwall, there is a splendid group of these 
trees, the largest of which measures nine and a 
half feet in circumference at three feet from the 
ground : it there divides into two branches, one 
of which is six feet in circumference, the other 
five. Planted in groups as they here are, they 
are beautiful not only from the striking contrast 
which, both in summer and winter, they afford to 



EVERGREEN OAK, 



99 



the surrounding trees, but form a broad and im- 
portant feature in the landscape. 

At Trelowarren also in Cornwall are a number 
of finely-grown trees, varying from nine to twelve 
feet in circumference. The Ilexes at St. Michael's 
Mount, which Loudon describes as making a very 
fine appearance, must have greatly declined of 
late. They would now scarcely attract the passing 
notice of a visitor. 



THE SYCAMORE. 



Acer Pseudo-Platanus. 

Natural Order — Acerine^. 
Class — OcTANDRiA. Order — Monogynia. 

If in my history of forest-trees I were to confine 
myself to those which are universally acknow- 
ledged to be indigenous to Britain, I should soon 
bring my labours to a close. England, though 
once a well-wooded country, never probably could 
boast of containing wdthin it any great variety of 
species. The Oak, fortunately, no one thinks of 
denying to be our fellow-countryman : if any one 
were bold enough to do so, we could easily refute 
him by pointing to living trees older than any of 
our national records ; or, if that did not sufhce, to 
trunks of trees preserved in peat bogs, which w^ere 
prostrated on their native soil centuries, probably, 
before the acorns were planted from which any 
trees now living sprung. But this is not the case 
with the Sycamore. No writer on the subject, so 
far as I can learn, looks on this tree in any other 
light than as a foreigner, but as a foreigner na- 
turalized so completely that it wdll continue to 
sow its own seeds and nurse its own offspring, as 
long as England exists. The Oak, indeed, has 
greater right to claim an indigenous origin than 
we ourselves. There can be httle doubt that the 



104 ^ THE SYCAMORE. 

Oaks which now stock our forests, or convey our 
sailors to eyery region of the world, are lineal 
descendants of the first trees which ever grew in 
our island. 

The Oak, on account of the age and size which 
it attains, the share which it had in the religious 
worship of our forefathers, its picturesque beauty, 
and its intimate connexion with naval architec- 
ture, is confessedly the most interesting of all the 
trees which grow in Britain. But the Sycamore 
is sadly deficient in these respects. It has neither 
extraordinary magnitude nor longevity to recom- 
mend it. It w^as not contemporary in this country 
with the worshippers of trees ; and I know not 
that it ever laid claim to be mentioned in connec- 
tion with any national boast. It has even been 
denied the possession of any picturesque beauty. 
Evelyn says of it, The Sycamore is much more 
in reputation for its shade than it deserves ; for 
the honey-dew leaves, which fall early, like those 
of the Ash, turn to mucilage and noxious insects, 
and putrefy with the first moisture of the season ; 
and are therefore, by my consent, to be banished 
from all curious gardens and avenues." If the 
trees, however, be very tall and handsome, they 
are the more tolerable for distant walks, espe- 
cially where other better trees prosper not so 
well, or where a sudden shade is expected. Some 
commend them to thicken copses, especially in 
parks, as least apt to the spoil of deer, and that 
it is good fire-wood." 

With me, however, I confess, it is somewhat of 
a favourite. Its buds are of a very elegant shape, 
particularly when beginning to burst. When it 
grows in sheltered hedges the young shoots which 



THE SYCAMORE. 



105 



spring from the base of the trunk, expand their 
pink or crimson leaves very early in the season, 
long before the tree has assumed its general foli- 
age. In this stage they contrast beautifully with 
the dark blue of the violet and the delicate yellow 
of the primrose, and as a few sprigs may always 
be found when these favourite flowers are in their 
prime, they have invariably had a place in my 
early spring nosegays. Another reason why I re- 
gard it with peculiar good-will is, that several 
trees of this species which I assisted to plant, at 
a time when they were no larger than a walking- 
cane, have now become stout, shady trees, though 
not yet twenty years old. But besides this, with 
its large and abundant leaves it forms a delightful 
shady retreat during the summer months : in the 
spring its graceful pendent clusters of flowers^ 
diligently explored by bees and countless other 
insects, are among the most interesting natural 
objects of the season : w^hile in autumn its tassels 
of winged seeds cannot fail to suggest pleasing 
and instructive reflections on the wise superin- 
tending Providence of the Almighty. 

Gilpin speaks of the Sycamore in a less con- 
demnatory tone than Evelyn. The Great 
Maple," he says, commonly called the Syca- 
more, is a grander and nobler tree than the 
smaller Maple ; but it wants its elegance : it is 
coarse in proportion to its bulk. It forms, 
however, an impenetrable shade, and often re- 
ceives well contrasted masses of light. Its bark 
has not the furrowed roughness of the Oak ; but 
it has a species of roughness very picturesque. 
In itself it is smooth ; but it peels off* in large 
flakes, like the Planes (to which, in other 



106 



THE SYCAMORE. 



respects^ it bears a near resemblance), leaving 
patches of different hues, seams, and cracks, 
which are often picturesque." 

According to Lauder, the Sycamore is a great 
favourite in Scotland, and is much planted about 
old aristocratic residences in that country. '^The 
spring tints of the Sycamore," he says, are rich, 
tender, glowing, and harmonious. In summer its 
deep green hue well accords with its grand and 
massive form : and the browns and dino'v reds of 
its autumnal tints harmonize well with the other 
colours of the mixed grove, to which they give a 
fine depth of tone." 

Having thus endeavoured to enlist the preju- 
dices of my readers in favour of the Sycamore, I 
will proceed to describe it. 

The name Acer, given to it by the Romans, is 
derived from Acer, acris, sharp or hard {ac, Cel- 
tic, a point), on account of the hardness of the 
wood, which was used for making spears and 
other sharp-pointed instruments ; or, as some are 
pleased to say, from acre ingenium, a ''sharp 
wit,'' from its being so much in use by the most 
ingenious artificers in fine works. Its specific 
name, Pseudo-Pldtanus, means Mock-Plane, being 
given to it in consequence of the resemblance 
borne by its leaves to those of the Plane-tree. 
The name Sycamore was given to it by the older 
Botanists, who erroneously believed it to be 
identical with the Sycamore,* or Mulberry-fig, of 
Palestine, which it somewhat resembles in the 
size and form of its leaves. 

No tree propagates itself more readily in this 

From syhe^ a fig, and moros, a mulberry ; being said to resemble 
the mulberry-tree in the leaf, and the fig in its fruit. 



THE SYCAMORE. 



107 



country^ as may easily be inferred from the great 
nmnber of seedlings whicli are to be found spring- 
ing spontaneously from the groimd in the vicinity 
of Sycamores which have begun to bear seeds. In 
its earliest stage, it is a puny herbaceous plant, 
furnished with two, or sometimes more, narrow 
smooth leaves entire at the edges : these are the 
cotyledonous leaves. Shortly afterwards (for 
during the whole of its existence it is a rapid 
grower), a few pointed and notched leaves, tinged 
with pink, are produced in the centre of these ; 
and as the nursling increases in size, others ap- 
pear, having the five-pointed, unequally-notched 
lobes which characterize the matured foliage of the 
tree. At the end of a year it will have attained, 
under favourable circumstances, the height of 
eighteen inches. As a sapling it is remarkable 
for its straight growth, smooth purplish-brown 
bark, and large leaf-buds. In this stage of its 
growth it is a great favourite with school-boys, 
who, in the spring, when the sap begins to rise, 
slip olf a cylinder of bark, and by removing a por- 
tion of the pith and wood, manufacture the shrill 
and unmusical instrument, a whistle. It produces 
flowers before it is twenty years old, but does not 
generally perfect its seeds until it has attained at 
least that age. In fifty or sixty years it reaches 
its full growth, and in the course of thirty or forty 
years more, thoroughly ripens its wood. 

The leaves of the Sycamore in autumn are fre- 
quently observed to be covered with dark-coloured 
spots. This appearance is produced by numerous 
blackish fungi {Xyloma acerinum\ which, as soon 
as the first sharp frost has scattered the leaves on 
the ground, commence their office of converting the 



108 



THE SYCAMORE. 



now useless vegetable substance into ricli mould. 
At all periods of its growth its leaves are liable to 
be covered with a peculiar viscid substance, termed 
honey-dew, the origin of which has by some been 
attributed to insects, by others to the plant itself. 
It is now, I believe, generally admitted that the 
formation of this clammy sweet juice is to be as- 
signed neither to the effect of disease in the plant, 
nor to the agency of insects : but, like the manna 
of the Ash and the gimi of the Cistus, is to be 
considered as a natural exudation of the juices 
of the plant ; what pui'pose it serves is, however, 
unknown. It is the presence of this substance 
which causes the unsightly appearance complained 
of by Evelyn, greatly aggravated as it is in the 
neighbourhood of inhabited houses by particles of 
soot floating in the air which rest on the leaves, 
and are detained there : as well as by the exuviae 
of insects flocking to them for a repast.* A writer, 
quoted by Loudon, says, that the bees are so fond 
of the juice which exudes from the leaves of Acer 
Platanoides, that it would be worth while to plant 
the tree in the neighbourhood of places v\-here 
hives are kept. 

Thus is it that Xature is her own handmaid. 
The superfluous juices of the Sycamore are not 
lost, but are deposited on the surface of the leaf 
to afford a plentiful banquet to the tiny myriads 
that wind their sultry horn'" around us. Xo- 
thing is created in vain. AVe applaud the senti- 
ment of the poet who sings of the flovrer that 

* When this honey-dew is very abundant, it is liable to drop on 
any shrubs beneath (such as bos, holly. 6cc.). and to turn their leaves 
black. The branches of such shrubs have been observed to be much 
infested with lichens. 



THE SYCAMORE. 



109 



wastes its fragrance on the desert air ; " but this 
is only because we do not know what end is an- 
swered either by its brilliant colouring or delicious 
perfume. Possibly^ if we had a fuller and firmer 
faith in the unlimited Providence of God, we 
should believe that the flower secluded in the 
depths of some untrodden forest, is furnished with 
a symmetry and tinting and fragrance beyond all 
that human art can attain, for some purpose which 
could not so well be answered by any other means. 
As it is, we vronder that so much perfection should 
exist, seemingly all in vain; bnt it were, methinks, 
a more pious employment, if not so poetical, to 
admire and be thaukful for all that we have been 
permitted to comprehend ; and where limits are 
set to our apprehension, humbly and meekly to 
adore. But in truth, we have need of as much 
faith in natural as in revealed religion. We must 

consider the lilies of the field" not only so far 
as they are within the cognizance of our senses ; 
we must be content to lose ourselves in the devo- 
tional thoughts which force themselves upon us 
when the objects of sense are exhausted: 

" Thouglits whicli do often lie too deep for tears." 

In May, before the leaves are thoroughly ex- 
panded, the Sycamore puts forth its elegant 
drooping clusters of green flowers, when the bee 
may be observed climbing about, and closely peer- 
ing into, every opening bud. This insect is much 
indebted to the Sycamore, since its flowers, which 
abound in honey, not only are very numerous, but 
appear at a season when the supply of honey- 
bearing flowers is limited. 



110 



THE SYCAMORE. 




SYCAMORE FLOWERS AND SF:ED- VESSELS. 

As soon as the flower is withered and has fallen 
off, the seed-vessels enlarge and acquire a reddish 
hue, which indeed in the autumn characterizes the 
whole tree. 



THE SYCAMORE. 



Ill 



" Nor unnoticed pass 
The Sj'camore, capricious in attire ; 
Xow green, now tawny, and ere autumn yet 
Has changed the woods, in scarlet honours bright." 

Co^VPER. 

Each of the two or three seed-vessels which suc- 
ceed every flower is furnished with a membranous 
diverging wing^ and it is owing to the presence of 




this that so many young plants may be discovered 
in the spring at a considerable distance from the 
parent tree. AVhen they have acquired their full 
size, which is early in autumn, they form clusters 
sufficiently large and conspicuous to alter the pic- 
torial character of the tree. They do not fall off 
when ripe like acorns, chestnuts, and other heavy 
seeds, but remain attached to the branches till the 
equinoctial gales set in, which serve the double 
purpose of separating them from the stalks and 
carrying them to some convenient place of growth. 
If, however, from growing in a sheltered spot, or 
from any other cause, they still retain their posi- 
tion, an event which frequently occurs, the seed- 
stalk rots from the effects of the winter's rain ; and 
the \dolent winds which accompany the succeeding 
vernal equinox do not fail to deposit the majority 
of the seeds in a place well adapted for their 
growth, in full time to receive all the advantages 
of the genial season which follows. The seed itself 



112 



THE SYCAMORE. 



is well protected against tlie severest \dcissitudes 
of weather, first by the horny, or almost woody, 
case in which it is enclosed ; and secondly, by the 
copious, soft, and glossy down which lines the 
seed-vessels, a covering alike impervious to cold 
and wet. 

It may be, that many trees which have been in- 
troduced into a strange country, fail to propagate 
themselves extensively, because the attendant cir- 
cumstances are not the same in the new comitry 
that they were in the old. Were the Sycamore, 
for instance, to be introduced into a country where 
no such periodical recurrence of rain and storms 
took place, and w^here, also, there was no inter- 
ference of human agency, it might soon become 
extinct, inasmuch as its seeds, if kept dry for a 
year, generally lose their vegetative power. The 
Oak, if planted in a country uninliabited by man, 
and where no such friendly depredator as the rook 
or the squirrel acted the part of a skilful forester, 
would soon disappear. Its acorns would indeed 
fall to the ground, and perhaps germinate, but i 
would rarely become trees, for the Oak, like many 
other trees, will not flourish under the shade of 
its own species. I may here observe, that the 
mast-bearing trees generally, such as the Oak, 
the Chestnut, and the Beech, are indebted for 
their propagation to animals whose instinct leads 
them to bury their food: those provided with. 
winged seeds, such as the Sycamore, the Ash, 
and the Elm, to storms and tempests ; and the 
drupe-bearing trees (those, namely, which are 
furnished with stone-fruit), to frugivorous birds, 
which fly away with the fruit and drop the seed. 
Thus by the wise arrangement of the Almighty 



THE SYCAMORE. 



113 



do these several classes of trees derive the great- 
est benefit from what we, at first sight, might 
imagine to be most productive of injury. 

From the extreme fecundity of this tree, Mar- 
tyn argues that if it were truly indigenous, it 
would ere this have filled the whole country, in- 
stead of being a simple occupant of plantations 
and hedges. In Switzerland, Germany, Austria, 
and Italy, it is found abundantly in the mountain- 
ous forests, and may therefore with propriety be 
considered a native of those countries, whence it 
was probably introduced into Britain, in the end 
of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth 
century. There are several varieties of Sycamore, 
which are propagated by grafting. The most 
remarkable among these are, the Yellow-leaved, 
or Costorphine Plane, "^^ which is not common, 
except in the neighbourhood of the place from 
which it takes its name ; and the Purple -leaved, 
so called from having the under surface of its 
leaves, especially in spring, tinged with dark 
purple. The value of all these, as ornamental 
trees, is much enhanced by the earliness of the 
season when they come into leaf. 

Chaucer speaks of it as a rare exotic, in the 
fourteenth century. Gerard, in 1597, says, ^^The 
Great Maple is a stranger in England, only it 
groweth in the walkes and places of pleasure of 
noblemen, w^here it especially is planted for the 
shadowe-sake, and under the name of Sycamore 
tree." Parkinson, speaking of the same in 1640, 
says : It is no where found, wild or natural, in 
our land, that I can learn ; but only planted in 
orchards or walkes for the shadowes sake." It 

* In Scotland, the Sycamore is frequently called " The Plane." 

I 



114 



THE SYCAMORE. 



abounds in sweet juice, of which, says Eveljni, 
" the tree being wounded, in a short time 
5'ields sufficient quantity to brew with, so as 
with one bushel of malt is made as good ale as 
with four bushels with ordinary water." Accord- 
ing to Sir T. Dick Lauder, The Sycamore 
has been proved to be capable of yielding sugar. 
Incisions were made, at five feet from the ground, 
in the bark of a tree of this species, about forty- 
five years old. A colourless and transparent sap 
flowed freely, so as in two or three hours to fill a 
bottle capable of containing a pound of water. 
Three bottles and a half were collected, weighing 
in all three pounds, four ounces. The sap was 
evaporated by the heat of a fire, and gave two 
hundred and fourteen grains of a product, in . 
colour resembling raw sugar, and sweet in taste, 
with a peculiar fiavour. After being kept fifteen 
months, this sugar was slightly moist on the sur- 
face. The quantity of sap employed in the eva- j 
poration was 24,960 grains, from w^hich 214 grains 
of sugar were obtained; therefore, 116 parts of 
sap yielded one part of sugar." 

An allied species, Acer saccharmum, or Sugar 
Maple, which is found in great quantities in Ca- 
nada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and other 
parts of North America, yields a similar saccharine 
juice, in such quantities that maple-sugar is an 
important article of manufacture. It has been " 
computed, that in the northern parts of the two . 
states of New York and Pennsylvania, there are 
ten millions of acres which produce these trees in 
the proportion of thirty to an acre. The season 
for tapping is in February and March, w^hile the 
cold continues intense, and the snow is still on 



THE SYCAMORE. 



115 



the ground. A tree of ordinary size yields from 
fifteen to thirty gallons of sap, from which are 
made from two to four pounds of sugar. The 
tree is not at all injured by the operation, but 
continues to flourish, after having been annually 
tapped for forty years without intermission. The 
produce is consumed principally in the neighbour- 
hood of the place where it is manufactured;* 
the sugar from the cane being preferred whenever 
it can be readily procured. 

Our Sycamore is not sufficiently productive of 
sugar to be ever employed in this way, even if the 
manufacture were legalized; but it is by no means 
a worthless tree. Its wood was much used for 
making platters before earthenware plates were 
generally introduced, and in rural districts is still 
applied to the same purpose. When the tree is 
young the wood is white, but acquires a yellow 
or brown hue as it increases in age. It is close- 
grained, but not hard, and does not readily w^arp, 
and, being easily worked either by the hand or 
lathe, was formerly held in high estimation for the 
purpose above-mentioned. It is sought by the 
joiner and cabinet maker, and is also used for 
making musical instruments and cider-screws. 
It forms also a very valuable fuel, burning slowly 
and giving out a great deal of heat. Not only 
on account of its uses in the arts and manufac- 
tures, and its dense fohage in summer, was its 
growth encouraged; but it was planted in the 
vicinity of houses, from the supposition that it 
was the Sycamore of Scripture ; this however is 
not the case, the tree into which Zacchasus 

* It is, however, stated that ten millions of pounds are annually 
imported into the United States. 



116 



THE SYCAMORE. 



climbed to see our Saviour pass on his way to 
Jerusalem being the Ficus Sycomorus, However, 
as the error once generally prevailed, both that i 
tree and our tree bearing the same name have 
been selected by the inventors of the language of 
flowers to indicate curiosity. 

Dr. Shaw, speaking of the Sycamore of the 
East, says, The mummy-chests, and whatever 
figures and instruments of wood are found in the 
catacombs, are all of them of Sycamore, which, 
though spongy and porous to appearance, has, i 
notwithstanding, continued entire and uncorrupt- ^ 
ed for at least three thousand years." 

From its value in furnishing wood for various 
uses, from the grateful shade which its wide- ' 
spreading branches afforded, and on account of 
the fruit, which. Mallet says, the Egyptians live 
upon and hold in the highest estimation, we 
perceive the loss which the ancient inhabit- 
ants must have felt ' when their vines were 
destroyed with hail, and their Sycamore-trees 
with frost.'"* 

. The Great Maple, or European Sycamore, 
will grow in any soil not saturated with mois- 
ture ; but it seems to prefer one that is dry and 
free, rather than one that is stifi* and moist. It 
will grow in exposed situations, and especially on ' 
the sea coast, and maintain its erect position 
against the sea breeze, better than most other 
trees. It is in use for this purpose in Scotland, 
and also for planting round farm-houses and 
cottages on the bleak hills. In such situations, 
an instance can hardly be found of the head of the 
tree leaning more to one side than another. 

* Ps. ksnii. 47 . 



THE SYCAMORE, 



117 



Even when the wind blows strongly in one direc- 
tion for nine months in the year^ this tree main- 
tains its perpendicularity and symmetrical form."* 

Though a fast grower, the Sycamore does not 
attain a remarkably large size, and it is as little 
noted for its longevity. It does not materially 
increase in size, after having reached the age of 
sixty years, but requires from thirty to forty 
years more to bring its timber to perfection. 

At the age of from one hundred and fifty to 
two hundred years, it usually closes its term of 
life ; though much older trees are on record 

Sir Thomas Dick Lauder mentions a Syca- 
more at Calder House, in the county of Edin- 
burgh, standing on the pleasure-ground, on the 
road from the house to the church, which, on the 
4th of October, 1799, measured seventeen feet, 
seven inches in girth ; at the ground it measured 
twenty feet three inches. Its trunk is twelve feet 
high, and it then divides into five great arms. Its 
branches extend in diameter about sixty feet. 
This tree is known to have been planted before 
the Reformation, and is therefore not less than 
three hundred years old ; yet it has the appear- 
ance of being perfectly sound. It was the tree 
to which, long ago, the iron jugs (a species of 
pillory) were fastened. The tree came gradually 
to grow over them, and they have now been com- 
pletely enclosed in its trunk for a considerable 
time. At the place where they are enclosed, 
there is a great protuberance on the south side 
of the tree, at the height of between four and five 
feet. 

A Sycamore at Newbottle Abbey, situated 

* Loudon. 



118 



THE SYCAMORE. 



north-west from the house, and the largest tree of 
its kmd about the place, in 1789, measured, at four 
feet from the roots, eighteen feet seven inches 
in girth. At the height of two feet and a half 
from the ground, it was twenty-four feet four 
inches, and it is about seventy feet high. It has 
the appearance of great antiquity, but seems still 
to be sound. Many other Sycamores at New- 
bottle were planted before the Reformation, and 
apparently about the same time with this, though 
they are inferior in size. This tree was pro- 
bably planted before the year 1530." 

The Sycamore at Kippencross is truly a noble 
tree. It has been figured by Nattes in his ' Scotia 
Depicta.' He states it to have been in 1801, 
twenty-eight feet nine inches in girth, wdth a stem 
of thirty-feet. He must have measured its cir- 
cumference at the ground, as when taken breast 
high, in 1798, its girth was only twenty -tw^o feet 
six inches. In 1809, this tree was in full health 
and beauty."* All that is known of the age of 
this tree is, that in Charles the Second's reign it 
went by the name of " The big tree of Kippen- 
cross." 

But the most remarkable Sycamores in Scot- 
land are those w^hich are called " Dool trees." 
They were used by the most powerful barons in 
the west of Scotland, for hanging their enemies 
and refractory vassals on, and were for this reason 
called dooly or grief trees. Of these there are 
three yet standing, the most memorable being one 
near the fine old castle of Cassillis, one of the 
seats of the Marquis of Ailsa, on the bank of the . 
river Doon. It is not so remarkable for its girth 
* Lauder's Gilpin. 



THE SYCAMORE. 



119 



of stem, as for its wide spreading branches and 
luxuriant foliage, among which from twenty to 
thirty men could be easily concealed. It was 
used by the family of Kennedy, who were the 
most powerful barons of the west of Scotland, for 
the purpose above-mentioned. The last occasion 
was about two hundred years ago, when Sir John 
Fau, of Dunbar, was hanged on it, for having 
made an attempt, in the disguise of a g3T)sy, to 
carry off the then Countess of Cassillis, who was 
the daughter of the Earl of Haddington, and to 
whom he had been betrothed prior to his going 
abroad to travel. Having been detained for some 
years a prisoner in Spain, he was supposed to be 
dead, and in his absence the lady married John, 
Earl of Cassillis. It is said that the lady wit- 
nessed the execution of her former lover from her 
b e d-r o om win do w. 



THE COMMON, or FIELD MAPLE. 



Acer Campestre. 

Natural order. — Acerine^. 
Class — OcTANDRiA. Order> — Monogynia. 

Though the tree last described is much larger 
and more generally kno\\TL than the present spe- 
cies, it has so long universally borne the name of 
Sycamore, that the generic name of Maple" is 
now almost exclusively applied to the smaller 
tree, the only species, in fact, which is indigenous 
to this country. Many persons probably are not 
aware, that the two trees belong to the same 
family, for if we except the keys, or clusters of 
winged seeds, they have to the casual observer 
few points of resemblance. 

The Sycamore justly claims the right of being 
considered a large tree : the circumference of its 
trunk is considerable ; it frequently covers a wide 
space of ground with its spreading limbs ; it casts 
a dense shade, and its leaves exceed in size those 
of most of our common trees. But the Maple 
rarely attains a size which entitles it to be con- 
sidered a tree at all ; its foliage is meagre and 
unpretending, while its value in hedge-making 
induces its owners to preserve as much as possible 
its character of an overgro\\'n shrub. Such, ac- 
cordingly, w^e generally find it when it growls in 
hedges ; and when met with among other trees 
it is mostly as underwood. Its leaves, like those 



122 THE COMMON, OR FIELD MAPLE. 

of the Sycamore, are five-lobed, but obtuse and 
much smaller. Its flowers appear in April, about 




LEAVES AND FLOWERS OF THE FIELD MAPLE. 

a fortnight before the leaves, and abound in sac- 
charine juice. They are similarly constructed 
with those of the Sycamore, but grow in erect, 
instead of drooping, clusters ; and the keys, which 
diff'er principally in size from those of the other 
species, are tinged with red. Besides being in- 
digenous to Britain, the Maple grows naturally in 
the middle and south of the European Continent, 
and in the north of Asia. 

In France, it appears to serve the purposes of 
man more than in this country. According to 



THE COMMON, OR FIELD MAPLE. 123 

Loudon, " The young shoots, being tough and 
flexible, are employed by the coachmen in some 
parts of France instead of whips. The tree is 
much used in the same country for forming 
hedges, and for filling up gaps in old fences. It 
is also employed in topiary works, in geometrical 
gardens, its branches being found to bear the 
shears better than those of most other trees. The 
leaves and young shoots are gathered green, and 
dried for winter provender for cattle. The sap 
yields more sugar, in proportion to the quantity 
taken, than that of the Sycamore ; but the tree 
does not bleed freely. In Britain, the tree is 
seldom planted for any other purpose than that of 
ornament, in which it is effective, by adding to 
the variety of a collection, rather than by its 
positive beauty." The wood makes excellent fuel, 
and the very best charcoal. Evelyn says of it, 

By shredding up the boughs to a head, I have 
caused it to shoot to a considerable height in a 
little time ; but if you will lop it for the fire, let 
it be done in January; and indeed it is observed 
to be of noxious infiuence to subnascent plants of 
other kinds, by reason of a clammy dew, which it 
sheds upon them, and therefore they should not 
be indulged in pollards, or spreading trees, but 
to thicken underwoods and copses. The timber 
is far superior to Beech for all purposes of the 
turner, who seeks it for dishes, cups, trays, 
trenchers, &c., as the joiner for tables, inlayings, 
and for the delicateness of the grain, when the 
knurs and nodosities are rarely diapered, which 
does but advance its price : our turners will work 
it so thin, that it is almost transparent." 

As an ornament to the landscape, the Maple 



124 THE COMMOy^ OR FIELD MAPLE. 

lias not mucli to recommend it. Gilpin says of 
it, Tlie ^Maple is an uncommon tree, though a 
common bush. Its wood is of little value ; and 
it is therefore rarely sulfered to increase. We 
seldom see it employed in any nobler ser^'ice than 
in filling up its part in a hedge, in company ^vith 
thorns, and briars, and other ditch trumpery." 
And although he afterwards says, " In the few 
instances I have met with of this tree in a state 
of maturity, its form has appeared picturesque ; " 
yet his praise of it is so exceedingly slight, that 
I have very little doubt that his eye, acute as it 
was to discern what is beautiful in the general 
features of nature, could have alighted with greater 
pleasru'e on ahnost any other kind of tree that 
can be named. Nevertheless, he has given to the 
Maple a deeper interest than it ever possessed 
before ; for ^' under the large Maple in Boldre 
churchyard, the Rev. "W. Gilpin, after fulfilhng 
his duties in the most exemplary manner for 
twenty years, as rector of this parish of Boldre, 
chose for his last resting place this sweet seques- 
tered spot, amidst 'the scenes he so much loved, 
and has so well described.'** 

By the ancients hardly any wood was more 
valued than that of the ]\Iaple, insomuch, that 
Virgil represents one of his kings as seated on a 
^laple throne. The great naturalist Pliny, says 
that its trunk, for beauty and firmness of grain, 
is inferior only to the Citron-wood. One kind, 
from the varied character of its veining, was 
named the Peacock Maple. The knots called 
Brusca and JloUusca, were most valued, and 



* Strutt. 



THE COMMON^ OR FIELD MAPLE. 



125 



manufactured into sncli ornaments as the limited 
size of the material would allow. 

In the ]Molluscum the veins were wide apart 
from each other. The Bruscum was deemed most 
valuable, when the arrangement of the veins re- 
sembled some animal (as was occasionally the 
case), and gave the wood a dark hue. The latter 
was preferred for making tables. And such 
spotted tables," says Evelyn, ^Svere the famous 
Tigrin and Pantherine curiosities ; not so called 
from being supported with figures carved like 
those beasts, as some conceive, and was in use 
even in our grandfathers' days, but from the 
natui'al spots and macula tions. Such a table was 
that of Cicero, which cost him ten thousand ses- 
terces (about 62/. sterling) ; such another had 
Asinius Grallus. That of King Juba was sold 
for fifteen thousand; and another which 1 read of, 
valued at a hundred and forty thousand sesterces, 
which, at about three halfpence sterling, arrives 
to a pretty sum (875/. sterling) ; and yet that of 
Mauritanian Ptolemie was far richer, containing 
four feet and a half diameter, three inches thick, 
which is reported to have sold for its weight in gold. 
Of that value they were, and so madly luxurious 
the age, that when they at any time reproached 
their ^vives for their wanton expensiveness in pearl 
and other rich trifles, they were wont to retort, 
and turn the tables upon their husbands."* 

Spenser appears to have considered the timber 

* The Bird's-eye ^Maple of modem cabinet-makers is tlie wood of 
the Sugar, or Rock, Maple. The trunk of this tree is rejected for 
civil and naval architecture ; but the wood of old trees is valued for 
inlaying mahogany. The appearance from which it derives its name 
proceeds from the twisting of the silver grain, which produces nu- 
merous knots like the eye of birds. 



126 THE COMMON, OR FIELD MAPLE. 



of the standing tree peculiarly liable to decay, for 
he speaks of 

" The jMaple seldom inward sound." 

The largest Maple now existing in Britain, and 
the only one to which any particular interest at- 
taches itself, is that mentioned above, as over- 
shado^\'ing the grave of Gilpin in Boldre church- 
yard. It is ten feet in circumference at the 
ground, and at four feet from the groimd, is 
seven feet six inches. The trunk divides into 
branches at twelve feet, and the entire height of 
the tree is forty-five feet. 

The foUomng notice of the Maple is extracted 
from the Journal of a Naturalist, The Maple is 
found growing in all our fences, generally reduced 
by the hedger's bill, to serve the same humble pur- 
poses as the thorns and sloes associated with it. 
Sometimes, however, it is permitted to assume the 
rank of a tree, when, if not possessing dignity, it 
is certainly beautiful, and becomes an ornament 
in the hedge-row. It is the earliest sylvan beau 
that is weary of its summer suit; first shifting 
its dress to ochrey shades, then trying a deeper 
tint, and lastly, assuming an orange vest ; thus 
setting a fashion that ere long becomes the garb 
of all except the rustic oak, which looks re- 
gardlessly at the beau, and keeps its verdant robe 
unchanged. 

Soon tired of this, the Maple takes a pattern 
from his sober neighbour Ash, throws its gaudy 
trim away, and patiently awaits mth all his peers 
the next new change. In spring, the woodbine 
wreaths its knots of green around the rugged 
limbs of the Maple ; the rose beneath puts on its 
emerald gems, and then our gallant sir will wear 



THE COMMON, OR FIELD MAPLE. 



127 



such colours too, fluttering through all its sum- 
mer's day. When first the Maple begins to au- 
tumnize the grove, the extremities of the boughs 
alone change their colour, but all the internal and 
more sheltered parts still retain their verdure, 
which gives to the tree the effect of a great depth 
of shade, and displays advantageously the light, 
lively colouring of the sprays. We find the Ma- 
ple useful in our hedges, not from the opposition 
it aff'ords, but by reason of its very quick growth 
from the stool after it has been cut, whence it 
makes a fence in a shorter time than most of its 
companions ; and when firewood is an object, it 
soon becomes sufficiently large for this purpose. 
The singular ruggedness of the branches and 
shoots, Yvhen they have attained a year's growth, 
and the depth of the furrows, give it a strongly 
marked character among our shrubs. The under 
side of the leaves in autumn, when they become 
yellow, dashed here and there with a few specks 
of red and brown, appear, when magnified, like a 
very beautiful and perfect mosaic pavement, with 
all its tessera arranged and fitted. If one of 
these rugged young shoots be cut through hori- 
zontally with a sharp knife, its cork -like bark 
presents the figure of a star ^\dth five or more 
rays, sometimes irregularly, but generally exactly 
defined. A thin slice from this surface is a 
beautiful and curious object in the microscope ; 
exhibiting the diff'erent channels, and variously- 
formed tubes, through which the sap flows, and 
the air circulates for the supply of all the diver- 
sified requirements of the plant. And it is good 
and delightful to contemplate the wonderful me- 
chanism that has been devised by the Ahnighty 



128 THE COMMON, OR FIELD MAPLE. 

Architect, for the sustenance and particular ne- 
cessities of the simple Maple, this " ditch trum- 
pery," as Gilpin calls it ; which naturally leads 
one to consider, that, if He had so regarded 
such humble objects, how much more has He 
counted worthy of His beneficence, the more 
highly destined orders of His creation ! " 

In the Gardeners' Chronicle there is an ac- 
count of a Maple at Docking Hall, in Norfolk, 
which measures sixteen feet in circumference at 
the base, and eight feet nine inches where the 
arms commence. The tree is very beautiful in 
form; it is nearly circular, the average of the 
diameter of the spread being fifty feet. 



THE ASH. 



THE ASH. 



Fraxinqs excelsior. 

ISatural Order — Oleace^» 
Class — DiANDRiA. Order — Monogynia. 

The Ash is, in utility, inferior only to the Oak, 
and like that tree an undoubted child of British 
soil. Not remarkable for robustness, grandeur, or 
longevity, it rests its claims on qualities scarcely 
less striking. In height, gracefulness of form, 
and elegance of foliage, it has no superiors, 
scarcely any competitor. Its favourite haunts, 
too, give it an additional charm. 

Far away, in some secluded valley, through 
which a mountain stream, prolific in miniature 
waterfalls, hurries or lingers, 

"—at its own sweet will," 

now penned up between party-coloured rocks, and 
now undermining the deep alluvial soil, which, 
in furtherance of the end for which it bubbled 
forth from the earth, it brought with it, ages ago, 
from the hills — among straggling mosses and 
strange-looking liverw^orts, which have no name 
save in the books and memory of the Naturalist — 
here the Ash is in its home. You may find it at 
times, a handsome looking tree in the neighbour- 
hood of farms, or in parks, and contributing greatly 

K 2 



132 



THE ASH. 



to the beauty of the landscape even in these loca- 
lities ; or you may see it lifting aloft a wretched 
broom-like head on a pale, disfigured stem, maim- 
ed and scarred throughout its whole length by the 
axe of the hard-handed farmer, who dreads the 
noxious influence of its drippings on his meadows 
and corn-lands ; but neither of these is the tree 
which the lover of Nature pictures to himself 
when he questions himself on his recollection of 
the Ash. This must be a tree that enjoys^ in 
common with many of its brethren, the beauties 
of the haunts I have described, not simply living 
and flourishing, but actually delighting in the 
brilliant sparkling of the w^ater, watching the 
ousel as he bathes in his rapid flight, gracefully 
sweeping its branches over the stream, climbing 
up the sides of the steep hill, or endeavouring to 
peep at what is passing in the world beyond. 
This is the Ash" of the Poet and the Vainter^ 
and something of these the true Naturalist must 
be, though he is neither cunning to touch the 
lyre nor handle the pencil — though unable in any 
way to give expression to his thoughts. 

" Here amid the brook, 

Grey as the stone to which it chiiig, half root, 

Half trunk, the young Ash rises from the rock : 

And there the parent lifts its lofty head, 

And spreads its graceful boughs ; the passing wind 

With twinkling motion lifts the silent leaves, 1 

And shakes its rattling tufts." 

SOUTHEY. 

The Ash w^as wtU known to the Greeks, who 
called it melea. Homer arms his heroes with an - 
ashen spear, and Cupid's arrows were originally 
m^ade of the same wood, though he afterwards 
stood indebted to a less cheerful tree, the Cypress. 



THE ASH. 



133 



The Romans called it Fraxinus^ a name which 
naturalists still retain, but the derivation of which 
is very uncertain. They employed its wood in 
the manufacture of weapons and many kinds of 
agricultural implements. In the Teutonic Myth- 
ology, the Ash holds a conspicuous place. Under 
the shade of an enormous tree — of which the 
branches overspread the earth, the top reached to 
Heaven, and the roots to the infernal regions, — 
the gods held their court. On the summit was 
perched an eagle, who watched the course of 
all earthly affairs, assisted by a squirrel, who em- 
ployed his time in descending and ascending to 
examine into, and report upon, what was passing 
beneath. Pliny gravely informs us that the ser- 
pent would rather creep into the fire than shelter 
itself in its branches : and Dioscorides, the 
physician, states that the juice of the Ash is an 
antidote against the bite of the same reptile. 

But we need not go back to ages so remote 
as these for superstitious opinions respecting this 
tree. Gilbert "White, in his classical history 
of Selbourne, says : "In a farm-yard, near the 
middle of this village, stands at this day a row of 
pollard-ashes, which, by the seams and long cica- 
trices down their sides, manifestly show that in 
former times they have been cleft asunder. These 
trees, when young and flexible, were severed and 
held open by wedges, while diseased children, 
stripped naked, were pushed through the aper- 
tures, under a persuasion, that by such a process 
the poor babes would be cured of their infirmity. 
As soon as the operation was over, the tree in the 

* " This," says Evelyn, is an old imposture of Pliny, who either 
took it upon trust, or else we mistake the tree." 



134 



THE ASH. 



suffering part was plastered with loam, and care- 
fully swathed up. If the parts coalesced and 
soldered together, as usually fell out, where the 
feat was performed with any adroitness at all, the 
party was cui'ed ; but where the cleft continued to 
gape, the operation, it was supposed, would prove 
ineffectual. Having occasion to enlarge my gar- 
den not long since, I cut do^Yii two or three such 
trees, one of which did not grow together. We 
have several persons now living in the tillage, 
who in their childhood were supposed to be 
healed by this superstitious ceremony, derived 
do^™, perhaps, from our Saxon ancestors, who 
practised it before their conversion to Christiani- 
ty." The same custom was known to Evehm, 
who half believes in the efhcacy of the ceremony."* 
If we may credit Phillips, the present enlightened 
age is not exempt from the same silly belief. 
He says: In the south-east part of the kingdom, 
the country people split young Ash trees, and 
make their distempered cliildren pass through 
the chasm in hopes of a ciu'e.f They have also a 
superstitious custom ftf boring a hole in an Ash, 
and fastening in a shrew mouse ; a few strokes 
-with a branch of this tree, is then accounted a 
sovereign remedy against cramp and lameness in 
cattle, which are ignorantly supposed to proceed 
from this harmless animal.' Such a tree was 
named from the unfortunate victim ^* a shrew- 
ash." AVhite thus describes one which about the 

* Hunter's Evelyn's Sylva, vol, i. p. 151. 

+ A writer in the Go.rdt/iers' Chronicle for April, 1846, states, 
that there is novr livino- in Sussex a man, who when an infant, about 
50 years a2:o, was passed through an Ash tree, at Todhurst, as 
a remedy for hernia. ^ Syka Florifera, vol. i. p. 8. 



THE ASH. 



135 



middle of the last century stood in the village of 
Selborne; At the south corner of the Plestor^ 
or area near the Church, there stood, about twenty 
years ago, a very old, grotesque, hollow, pollard- 
ash, which for ages had been looked on with no 
small veneration as a shrew -ash. Now, a shrew- 
ash is an Ash whose twigs or branches, when 
gently applied to the limbs of cattle, will imme- 
diately relieve the pains which a beast suffers 
from the running of a shrew-mouse over the part 
affected : for it is supposed that a shrew-mouse 
is of so baleful and deleterious a nature, that 
wherever it creeps over a beast, be it horse, cow, 
or sheep, the suffering animal is afflicted with 
cruel anguish, and threatened with the loss of the 
use of the limb. Against this accident, to which 
they were continually liable, our pro\ddent fore- 
fathers always kept a shrew-ash at hand, which, 
when once medicated, would maintain its virtues 
for ever. A shrew-ash was made thus : — Into 
the body of the tree, a deep hole was bored with 
an auger, and a poor devoted shrew-mouse was 
thrust in alive, and plugged in, no doubt with 
several incantations, long since forgotten. As 
the ceremonies necessary for such a consecration 
are no longer understood, all succession is at an 
end, and no such tree is known to exist in the 
manor or hundred." 

Lightfoot says, that in many parts of the High- 
lands of Scotland, at the birth of a child the 
nurse puts one end of a great stick of this tree 
into the fire, and while it is burning, receives into 
a spoon the sap or juice which oozes out at the 
other end, and administers this as the first spoon- 
ful of food to the new-born infant. 



1S6 



THE ASH. 



The Engiisli name of this tree is derived from 
the Saxon ^^£sc. The common opinion, that it is 
so called from the colour of its bark closely re- 
sembling that of wood-ashes, is incorrect. 

Gilpin's description of its general character is^ 
as usual^ accurate and truthful : *^ I have some- 
times heard the Oak called the Hercules of the i 
forest, and the Ash the Venus. The comparison ■ 
is not amiss; for the Oak joins the ideas of 
strength and beauty: while the Ash rather joins 
the ideas of beauty and elegance. Virgil marks 
the character of the Ash as peculiarly beautiful : 

' Fairest of forest-trees the Ash.'^ 

The Ash generally carries its principal stem 
liigher than the Oak, and rises in an easy, flowing 
line. But its chief beauty consists in the light- 
ness of its whole appearance. Its branches at first 
keep close to the trunk, and form acute angles 
with it : but, as they begin to lengthen, they 
generally take an easy sweep : and the looseness 
of the leaves corresponding ^vith the lightness of 
the spray, the whole forms an elegant depending 
foliage. Xotliing can have a better eftect than 
an old Ash hanging from the corner of a wood, 
and bringing ofl' the heaviness of the other foliage 
vdth its loose, pendent branches. And yet in 
some soils, I have seen the Ash lose much of its 
beauty in the decline of age. Its foKage becomes 
rare and meagre ; and its branches, instead of 
hanging loosely, often start away in disagreeable 
forms. In short, the Ash often loses that gran- 
deur and beauty in old age, which the generality 



* " Fraxiniis in svMs piilcherrima.'' 



THE ASH. 



137 



of trees, and particularly the Oak. preserve till a 
late period of their existence." 

The Ash is indigenous throughout the greater 
part of Europe.^ the north of Africa, and some 
parts of Asia. It rises freely from seed, and in 
favourable situations it grows rapidly. Its roots 
are remarkable for their tendency to take a hori- 
zontal direction, and, being abundantly furnished 
wiih fibres which approach closely to the surface, 
effectually check the growth of ahnost all other 
vegetation. Hence has originated the erroneous 
notion that the drippings of its leaves are pecu- 
liarly noxious. They dislike the presence of stag- 
nant water : but dehght to approach as closely as 
possible to the gravelly bed of a running stream. 
O^^ig to these instincts, if they may be so called, 
the Ash outstrips any other tree when it grows 
on the shallow rich soil which lines the course 
of our mountain streams. It is by no means 
convenient to plant Ash in plow-lands, for the 
roots will be obnoxious to the coulter ; andt the 
shade of the tree is malignant both to corn and 
grass, when the head and branches over-drip 
and emaciate them. — The Ash delights in the 
best land, which it will soon impoverish, yet 
grows in any, so it be not over stiff, wet, and 
approaching to the marshy, unless it be first 

* Professor Jameson is disposed to think that in Scotland the Ash 
is not indigenous, " The Ash and the Beech hare a place in the Flora 
Scotica 01 Lightfoot and Hooker, and they have long ornamented our 
vroods and plantations. But there is great reason to doubt their being 
truly indigenous to this country, or having formed any pan of the 
ancient forests. No traces of them occur in our peat-mosses : yet 
Ash-seeds and Beech-mast v,'ould in all probability have proved as in- 
destructible as Hazel-nuts or Fir-cones, which are abundant in many 
ueat-mosses." (Xote in Jameso/i's Journal^ 



138 



THE ASH. 



well drained : by the banks of sweet and crystal 
rivers and streams I have observed them to thrive 
infinitely."* 

The young plants are readily distinguished 
from other saplings, in winter and early spring, 
by their ash-coloured tint, their remarkable black 
buds, and the flattened or compressed shape of 
the twigs, a peculiarity which is most perceptible 
near the terminal pair of buds. In summer, the 
leaves are a no less certain distinguishing cha- 
racter. They are technically termed pinnate, 
and are composed of about five pairs of acute, 
notched leaflets, with a terminal odd one, which 
last is occasionally not developed. 

The foliage of the Ash is very late in making- 
its appearance : consequently in early spring it 
cannot compete in beauty with other forest trees 
which are less sluggish in donning their green 
attire. It is equally remarkable, too, for the ear- 
liness of the season at which it sheds its foliage. 

Its leaf is much tenderer than that of the 
Oak, and sooner receives impressions from the 
winds and frost. Instead of contributing its tint, 
therefore, in the wane of the year, among the 
many-coloured offspring of the woods, it shrinks 
from the blast, drops its leaf, and in each scene 
where it predominates, leaves wide blanks of 
desolated boughs, amidst foliage yet fresh and 
verdant. Before its decay, we sometimes see its 
leaf tinged with a fine yellow, well contrasted 
with the neighbouring greens. But this is one 
of Nature's casual beauties. Much oftener its 
leaf decays in a dark, muddy, unpleasing tint. 
And yet sometimes, notwithstanding this early 

* Evelyn's Sylva. 



THE ASH. 



139 



loss of its foliage, we see the Ash, in a sheltered 
situation, ^Yhen the rains have been abundant and 
the season mild, retain its green (a light pleasing 
green) when the Oak and the Elm in its neigh- 
bourhood have put on their autumnal attire/"* 

The precise time at which it sheds its leaves 
varies much in different individuals, and this dif- 
ference arises not only from situation, but from 
other causes, for sometimes in the same hedge- 
row many trees will have cast their foliage while 
others show no symptom of decay. 

The shade of the Ash," says Evelyn, ^4s not 
to be endured, because the leaves produce a nox- 
ious insect : and for displaying themselves so very 
late, and falling very early, not to be planted for 
umbrage or ornament, especially near the garden, 
since (besides their predatious roots) the leaves 
dropping with so long a stalk, are di^a^™ by clus- 
ters into the worm-holes, which foul the alleys 
with their keys, and suddenly infect the ground." 
For these reasons, landscape gardeners do not re- 
commend the extensive plantation of the Ash in 
localities where a permanent mass of foliage is de- 
sired, nor in the vicirnty of mansions ; nevertheless 
their crrowth may safelv be encouraD:ed bv the 
banks of sweet and crystal rivers and streams," 
according to Evelyn, their favourite haunts. 

As to the uses of the foliage, Phillips says : 
" The Romans used the Ash-leaves for fodder, 
which were esteemed better for cattle than those 
of any other trees, the Elm excepted ; and they 
were also used for the same purpose in this coun- 
try, before agriculture was so well understood, and 
our fields clothed with artificial grasses. In Queen 

^ Gilpin. 



140 



THE ASH. 



Elizabeth's time, the inhabitants of Colten and 
Hawkshead Fells remonstrated against the number 
of forges in the country, because they consumed 
all the loppings and croppings, which were the 
sole winter food for their cattle. In the north of 
Lancashire they still lop the Ash to feed the 
cattle in autumn when the grass is upon the de- 
cline, the cattle peeling off the bark." Its leaf 
and rind are nutritive to deer, and much used in 
browzing them in summer. The keepers of the 
forest therefore seek out all the Ash-trees they 
can find, which are for this purpose mangled and 
destroyed."* Ash -leaves, as well as the leaves 
of the Sloe, are said to be used extensively for 
the purpose of adulterating tea, which they re- 
semble in shape and size. It is somewhat con- 
solatory to know that either substitute, if taken 
in moderation, is innocent. 

In Britain, the Ash, in its living state, is not 
liable to be much disfigured by the attacks of 
insects ; but on the Continent the case is very 
different, as will be seen from the following ac- 
count quoted from various authors by Loudon 
in his valuable Arboretum Britannicum : If Na- 
ture had produced the Ash for no other purpose 
than for the embellishment of forests," says the 
writer of the article Frdxinus in the Nouveau 
Du Hamel, 'Sve might almost say that she had 
failed in her end, or had opposed herself to 
her own views, in destining the leaves of that 
tree to be the food of an insect Cantharis vesi- 
catoria (Spanish-fly or blister-fly), a beetle of a 
beautiful golden green, with black antennae, which 
devours them with avidity. The ash is no sooner 



* Gilpin. 



THE ASH. 



141 



covered with leaves, than these are attacked by 
such a number of cantharides, or Spanish-flies, 
that the trees, during the remainder of the sum- 
mer, have a dismal appearance ; and, though the 
insect which devours the leaves may please the 
eye by its elegant form, and its colours of green 
and gold, yet it spreads abroad a smell which is so 
disagreeable, that it causes the common Ash to be 
excluded from^ our forests, where the flowering 
Ash, and some of the American species, are alone 
introduced ! M. PiroUe, in one of the early vo- 
lumes of the Bon Jardinier^ m.entions that, even 
when the cantharides are dead on the trees, they 
become dried to a powder, which it is difficult to 
pass the trees without inhaling. The particles of 
this powder, being parts of the flies that cause 
the blistering of the skin when a blister-plaster 
is applied, are of course dangerous to persons who 
inhale them; and on this account. Ash -trees are 
never planted near villages in France." These 
insects being never numerous in England, there 
is no fear of any such results. 

Gilpin's remarks on the spray of the Ash are 
well worth the attention of the artist. After 
pointing out the peculiar character of the Oak, he 
proceeds to say : " The spray of the Ash is very 
different. As the boughs of the Ash are less 
complex, so is its spray. Instead of the thick 
intermingled bushiness which the spray of the 
Oak exhibits, that of the Ash is much more 
simple, running in a kind of irregular parallels. 
The main stem holds its course, forming at the 
same time a beautiful sweep ; but the spray does 
not divide, like that of the Oak, from the extre- 
mity of the last year's shoot, but springs from the 



U2 



THE ASH. 



side of it. Two shoots spring out opposite to 
each other, and each pair in a contrary direction. 
Rarely, however, both the shoots of either side 
come to maturity ; one of them is commonly lost 
as the tree increases, or at least makes no appear- 
ance in comparison with the other, which takes 
the lead. So that notwithstanding this natural 
regularity of growth, so injurious to the beauty 
of the Spruce-fir, and some other trees, the Ash 
never contracts the least disgusting formality from 
it. It may even secure great picturesque beauty, 
for sometimes the whole branch is lost as far as 
one of the lateral shoots, and this occasions a kind 
of rectangular jimction, which forms a beautiful 
contrast with the other spray, and gives an ele- 
gant mode of hanging to the tree. 

" This points out another difference between 
the spray of the Oak and that of the Ash. The 
spray of the Oak seldom shoots out from the 
under sides of the larger branches ; and it is this, 
together with the strength and firmness of the 
branches, which keeps them in a horizontal form. 
But the spray of the Ash as often breaks out on 
the under side as in the upper ; and being of a 
texture weaker than that of the Oak, it generally, 
as the bough increases, depends upon the larger 
branch, and rising again, forms, in full-grown 
trees especially, very elegant, pendent boughs." 

This description is so very accurate and truth- 
ful, that the reader, if he is at all conversant with 
woodland scenery, can scarcely fail to recognise 
the portrait. 

When the Ash has attained a considerable size, 
the spray assumes in early spring, an appearance 
very different from that which characterised the 



THE ASH. 



143 



younger tree. This is occasioned by the numer- 
ous clusters of flowers which appear at the extre- 
mities of the branches, at least a month before 




FLOWERS AND SEED-VESSELS OF THE ASH. 

the leaves. These flowers are minute and remark- 
ably simple in their structure, being destitute 
both of calyx and corolla : but being exceedingly 
numerous, and of a dark purple colour, they are 



144 



THE ASH. 



very conspicuous, and add materially to the ordi- 
nary graceful character of the tree. They grow 
in dense clusters on the extremities of those 
branches which were produced in the former year : 
and, buried among them, lie the rudiments of 
the future leading shoot. They are difficult to ' 
describe except in the technical language of the 
botanist, but will amply reward any one who will 
take the pains to examine them closely : for, mi- 
nute as they are, they are very elegant, and. the 
rich purple contrasts beautifully with the delicate 
greenish-yellow tint of the flower stalks, though 
when the tree is observed from a distance, the 
latter are so closely concealed by the flowers as 
to be scarcely apparent. In its earher stage of 
growth, the mass of unexpanded flowers is not 
unlike an irregularly granulated fruit ; it even- 
tually becomes diffuse, and is finally succeeded by 
bunches of pendent seeds, not in- 

tl appropriately called keys,^ They 
differ from the keys of the Syca- 
nH more in gro\^ing singly, instead of 
■n in pairs, but like them are winged, 
and remain firmly attached to the 
1 J™ tree, until the season when winds 
lii l prevail sufficiently powerful to strip 
them from the branches and carry 
them a considerable distance from 
the parent tree. How wise a provision this 
is, is very conspicuous in the case of the Ash, 
for, as v\'e have seen above, the roots of this 
tree naturally extend horizontally so near the 
surface as to exhaust the soil and, consequently, 
to render it unfit for the nourishment of seedlings 

* The Latins termed the seed of the Ash lingua avis {bird's tongue) 
from some fancied resemblance in shape. 



THE ASH. 



145 



of the same species. So firmly indeed are the 
keys attached to the twig, that not only may the 
tree be discriminated in winter by its bunches of 
brown seeds ; but it is far from unusual to see 
the ragged remnants of the previous year mixed 
up with the fresh flowers and foliage. 

The Ash is liable to a disease in its inflores- 
cence which deserves to be noticed. It occurs 
in either particular trees or seasons ; the whole 
flower-bud, without expanding at all, becomes an 
irregular, solid mass, and of course does not ripen 
its seeds. 

It has been observed already, that the season 
at which the Ash sheds its leaves varies consider- 
ably in different individuals. It is also worthy 
of remark, that individual trees also vary greatly 
in the quantity of seeds produced, and that those 
which bear but few' seeds compensate for their 
sterility, by a greater profusion of foliage, which 
they also retain until a much later period in the 
year. This phenomenon may be explained on the 
ground that when there is an abundant produce 
of seed, the tree reserves its energies in order to 
mature them, consequently the foliage is thrown 
off early in the autumn : but when there is no 
such demand for the nourishment of seed, the 
tree expends all its vigour on the leaves, which 
are consequently numerous, and so healthy as to 
be little affected by the early frosts of autumn.* 

By the facility of transit which its winged 

* My readers, if they have had any experience in gardening, must 
be well aware that this law applies to most, if not all, plants that come 
under their care. A liealtly state of foliage is indispensable to the pro- 
duction of perfect flowers and fruit ; anything more than this has a 
contrary effect ; a superabundance of leaves, being usually attended by 
a defective produce of both flowers and fruit. 

L 



146 



THE ASH. 



appendage affords to the seed of the Asli, we are 
to account for the appearance of trees in the very 
strange situations in which they are sometimes 
found J springing, for instance, from church towers, 
ruins, and crags inaccessible to man. Dr. Plott, 
in his Natural History of Oxfordshire^ mentions 
a singular instance of this vegetable wayward- 
ness : An Ash-key rooted itself on a decayed 
willow", and finding, as it increased, a deficiency 
of nourishment in the mother plant, began to 
insinuate its fibres by degrees, through the trunk 
of the willow, into the earth. There, receiving 
an additional recruit, it began to thrive and ex- 
pand itself to such a size, that it burst the willow 
in pieces, which fell away from it ; and what 
was before the root of the Ash, being now exposed 
to the air, became the solid trunk of a vigorous 
tree." 

Ash-keys were held in high repute by the ancient 
physicians for their medicinal properties. They 
were also preserved with salt and vinegar, and sent 
to table as a sauce, w^hen, says Evelyn, being 
pickled tender they afford a delicate salading." 

From a foreign species of Ash, Fraxinus ornus, 
of Linnaeus, Ornus Europcea of modern authors, 
is procured a substance which, from its appear- 
ance somewhat according with the description of 
the miraculous food of the Israelites in the wilder- 
ness, is called Manna. This substance is chiefly ' 
collected in Calabria and Sicily; where, according ^ 
to the Materia Medica of Geoffrey, the manna 
runs of itself from the trunks of some trees, while i 
it does not flow from others, unless wounds are 
made in the bark. Those trees which yield the 
manna spontaneously grow in the most favourable 



THE ASH. 



147 



situations, and tlie sap runs from them sponta- 
neously only during the greatest heats of summer. 
It begins to ooze out about mid-day, in the 
form of a clear liquid, which soon thickens, and 
continues to appear until the cool of the evening ; 
when it begins to harden into granules, which 
are scraped off the following morning. When 
the night has been damp or rainy, the manna 
does not harden, but runs to the ground and is 
lost. This kind is called manna in tears, or 
manna lagrimi^ and is as white and pure as the 
finest sugar. About the end of July, when the 
liquid ceases to flow of itself, incisions are made 
through the bark and soft wood ; and into these 
incisions slender pieces of straw^, or twig, are 
inserted, on which the manna runs, and coating 
them over, hardens on them. This is the com- 
mon manna of the shops, Vvdiich is thus collected 
in the form of tubes, and is called manna in can- 
noli. Another, and inferior sort, is procured by 
making an oblong incision in the trees in July 
or August, and taking off a piece of the bark 
about three inches in length, and two inches in 
breadth. This kind, which is called manna-grass, 
is the coarsest ; but as it is produced with less 
trouble, it is the cheapest. Sometimes, instead 
of cutting out a piece of bark, and leaving the 
wound open, two horizontal gashes are made, 
one a little above the other ; in the upper of 
which is inserted the stalk of a maple leaf, the 
point of the leaf being inserted in the low^er 
gash, so as to form a sort of cup to receive the 
manna, and to preserve it from dust and other 
impurities. The greater part of the manna of 
commerce is procured in the latter manner, and 



148 



THE ASH. 



is imported in chests, in long pieces, or granu-j 
lated fragments, of a ^yhitish or pale yellow co- 
lour, and in some degree transparent. The in- 
ferior kind is of a dark brown colour, in adhesive 
masses, and is moist and unctuous when felt. 
Manna from the Ash has a peculiar odour, and a 
sweetish taste, accompanied with a slight degree- 
of bitterness. It was formerly used in medicine, i 
but is now chiefly used to disguise other drugs i 
in administering them to children." — Loudon, \ 

In the deserts of Syria and Arabia is abun-j 
dandy produced a leguminous plant,* called by 1 
Hasselquist, Ononis spinosa; by Tournefort, ■ 
Maurorum, from which is procured a substance, 
answering yet more closely than the above to the 
description of the manna of the Israelites. At first 
it resembles drops of honey, but candies when ex- 
posed to the air, granulating into pieces not larger 
than coriander seed. The Arabs have a tradition 
that it fell in unusual quantities to supply the 
Israelites vrith food during their wandering in 
the wilderness. The supply of manna on that 
occasion, however, being purely miraculous, can 
be explained neither by reference to ancient 
legends nor modern science. The very meaning 
of the name, " ivhat is it,'' would imply that it 
was a substance with which the Israelites were 
unacquainted : and the silence of Moses on the 
occasion is sufficient evidence that he had met 
with nothing of the kind during his previous^ 
residence of forty years in Arabia. 

As a timber-tree the Ash is exceedingly valuable,- 
not only on account of the quickness of its growth. 

^" LegTiminous plants are those which produce their seed in pods, as i 
the bean, pea, vetch, laburnum. | 



THE ASH. 



149 



but for the toughness and elasticity of its wood, 
in wliich latter quality it surpasses every Euro- 
pean tree. In its younger stages (when it is called 
ground-ash) it is much used for walking sticks, 
hoops, and hop-poles; and it matures its wood at 
so early an age, that an Ash-pole, three inches in 
diameter, is as valuable and durable for any pur- 
pose to which it can be applied, as the timber of 
the largest tree. *^The use of Ash is (next to 
that of the Oak itself) one of the most universal : 
It serves the soldier * — and heretofore the scholar, 
who made use of the inner bark to write on, before 
the invention of paper. The carpenter, wheel- 
wright and cart-wright find it excellent for plows, 
axle-trees, wheel-rings, and harrows ; it makes 
good oars, blocks for pulleys, and sheffs, as seamen 
name them : for drying herrings no wood is like 
it, and the bark is good for the tanning of nets ; 
and, like the Elm (for the same property of not 
being apt to split or scale), is excellent for tenons 
and mortises ; also for the cooper, turner, and 
thatcher ; nothing is like it for our garden pali- 
sade hedges, hop-yards, poles and spars, handles 
and stocks for tools, spade-trees, &c. In summer, 
the husbandman cannot be without the iVsh for 
his carts, ladders, and other tackling, from the 
pike, spear, and bow, to the plow ; for of Ash 
were they formerly made, and therefore reckoned 
amongst those woods which, after long tension, 
j has a natural spring, and recovers its position, so 
' as in peace and war it is a wood in liighest re- 
! quest: In short, so useful and profitable is this 

* Spears were anciently made of IMyrtle, Cornel and Hazel, "but 
Pliny prefers the Ash for that purnose. 



150 



THE ASH. 



tree next to the Oak, that every prudent lord of a 
manor should employ one acre of ground ^^dth Ash 
to every twenty acres of other land, since in as 
many years it would be more worth than the land 
itself." — But, we may add, it should be planted in 
sheltered situations, where the soil is moderately 
dry. " Some Ash is curiously cambleted and 
veined, so differently from other timber, that our 
skilful cabinet-makers prize it equal with Ebony, 
and give it the name of green Ebony, which their 
customers pay well for ; and when our woodmen 
light upon it, they may make what money they 
will of it." — Lastly, the white and rotten dotard 
part composes the ground for our gallants' sweet 
powder ; and the truncheons make the third sort 
of most durable coal, and is, of all others, the 
sweetest of our forest fuelling, and the fittest for 
ladies' chambers ; it will burn even whilst it is 
green, and may be reckoned amongst the kinds of 
wood which burn ^\'ithout smoke."*" 

Phillips, speaking of the value of Ash-timber, 
says : In remote times, when this island was 
overrun with woods, timber-trees were princi- 
pally valued for the food which they yielded 
to herds of swine ; and thus, by the laws of 
Howel Dda, the price of an Ash was rated at 
4d., while an Oak or a Beech was put at 120d. 
At the present time, Ash-timber meets with as 
ready a sale, and brings nearly as high a price, as 
the best Oak ; and although we do not so fre- 
quently meet with large Ash-trees as we do vdth. 
large Oaks and Elms, yet it will be seen that the 
natural size of the tree is nearly the same. But 
as it grows so much more rapidly than the Oak, 

* Eyelyn's Sylva. 



THE ASH. 



151 



so will it sooner decay than that tree, if not felled 
at maturity. It is observed, that when the wood- 
peckers are seen tapping these trees, they ought 
to be cut, as these birds never make holes in the 
Ash, until it is on the decay." 

This fact has not escaped the notice of the ob- 
servant Waterton, the well known Ornithologist. 
" Often," he says, ^Svhen arrayed in all the bloom 
of vegetable beauty, the Ash-tree is seen to send 
forth from its bole, or from some principal branch, 
a small fungus, which during the summer in- 
creases to a considerable size. It ripens in the 
autumn and falls to the ground when winter's 
rain sets in. The bark through which this fungus 
sprouted is now completely dead, though it still 
retains its colour ; and that part of the wood from 
which it proceeded is entirely changed in its 
nature, the whole of its vitiated juices having 
been expended in forming and nourishing the 
fungus. 

" Nothing remains of its once firm and vigorous 
texture. It is become what is commonly called 
touchwood, as soft and frangible as a piece of cork, 
and, wdien set on fire, ^yill burn like tinder. In 
the mean time, the tree shows no sign of sickness ; 
and its annual increase goes on as usual ; till, at 
last, the new swelling wood closes over the part 
from which the fungus had grown, and all appears 
to go on right again. But, ere the slow process 
arrives at this state, the titmouse or the wood- 
pecker will have found an entrance and a place of 
safety for their incubation. They quickly per- 
forate the distempered bark ; and then the tainted 
wood beneath it yields to their pointed bills, with 
which they soon effect a spacious cavity. Here 



152 



THE ASH. 



then we have the whole mystery unfolded. These 
birds, which never perforate the live wood, find 
in this diseased part of the tree, or of the branchy 
a place suitable to their wants. They make a 
circular hole, large enough to admit their bodies ; 
and then they form a cavity mthin, sufficiently 
spacious to contain their young. Thus does 
Nature kindly smooth the way, in order that all 
her creatures may prosper and be happy. When- 
ever I see these sylvan carpenters thus employed, 
I say to them, ^ Work on, ye pretty birds ; you do 
no harm in excavating there : I am your friend, 
and I will tell the owner of the tree that you are 
not to blame.' But his woodman deserves a severe 
reprimand. He ought to have cut down the tree 
in the autumn, after the appearance of the fun- 
gus." — Essays on Natural History , 

The author of The Journo.l of a Naturalist 
strongly deprecates the custom of pollarding trees, 
and more particularly the Ash. This system of 
cutting off the heads of the young trees in the 
hedge-rows is resorted to by the farmer for the 
purpose of forcing them, thus deprived of their 
leaders, to throw out collateral shoots, serving 
for stakes for fences and for firewood. These pur- 
poses are effected ; but of all hopes of timber, or 
profit to the proprietor there is an end. No trees 
suffer more in this respect than the Ash. Prohi- 
bitions against mangling trees are usual in agree- 
ments ; but, with some exceptions in regard to 
Oak, little attention seems paid to the covenant, as 
is obvious on the most cursory view of the coun- 
try in any direction ; whereas the Ash is not a less 
valuable tree than the Oak, from its thriving 
more universally in all situations, and becoming 



THE ASH. 



153 



saleable in a shorter period. One or two gene- 
rations must pass before an Oak should be felled ; 
but the Ash becomes useful wood while its more 
respected companion is but a sapling. Young 
Ash-trees should therefore be more especially 
guarded, because they are the most likely to suf- 
fer, from their producing the greatest quantity of 
lop in the shortest time. It is by no means an 




POLLARD-ASH. 

uncommon thing to observe every Ash-tree re- 
duced to stumps by successive poUardings. I am 
not so silly as to enlarge upon the beauty of what 
has been called ^^picturesque farming;" but when 



154 



THE ASH. 



we cast our eyes over the country^ and see sucli 
rows of dark, club -headed, posts, we cannot but 
remark upon the unsightly character they present, 
and consider that it is neither laudable to deform 
our beautiful country by connivance at the practice, 
nor that it is proper attention to individual profit 
to allow the continuation of it. The Ash, after 
this mutilation, in a few years becomes flattened at 
the summit, moisture lodges in it, and decay com- 
mences, the central parts gradually mouldering 
away, though for many years the sap-wood* will 
throw out \igorous shoots for the hatchet. The 
caterpillar of the goat-moth now too commences 
its ravages, and the end is not far distant. But 
the wood of the Ash appears in every stage sub- 
ject to injury; when in a dry state the weevils 
mine holes through it ; when covered by its bark, 
it gives harbour to an infinite variety of insects, 
which are the appointed agents for the removal 
of the timber : the ashen bar of a stile, or a post, 
we may generally observe to be regularly scored 
by rude lines diverging from a central stem, like 
a trained fruit tree, by the meanderings of a little 
insect {ips niger^ &c.), being the passages of the 
creatures feeding on the wood." 

Among the most remarkable Ash-trees of which 
I can find an account are the following : — 

Evelyn mentions " divers in Essex which mea- 
sured in length one hundred and thirty-two feet." 
Phillips says : At Doriney, near Clare, in the 
county of Gralway, is an old Ash, that at four feet 
from the ground measures forty -two feet in cir- 
cumference ; at six feet high, thirty feet. The 

^ Alburnum^ or sap ivood, comprises the light-coloured, recently 
formed layers of wood adjoining the bark. 



THE ASH. 



155 



trunk has long been quite hollow, and a little 
school was kept in it. There were a few branches 
remaining in 1808, which were fresh and vigorous. 
Near Kennity Church, in the King's County, is 
an Ash, the trunk of which is twenty-one feet ten 
inches round, and it is seventeen feet high before 
the branches break out. These are of enormous 
bulk. When a funeral of the lower class passes 
by, they lay the corpse down for a few minutes, 
say a prayer, and then throw a stone to increase 
the heap, which has been accumulating round the 
root." 

Sir Thomas Dick Lauder mentions an enor- 
mous Ash-tree near the house of Bonhill, in Dum- 
bartonshire, which at four feet from the ground 
measures thirty-four feet. It is hollow, and in 
the inside a little room has been fitted up, 
nine feet in diameter and eleven in height. It 
is floored and surrounded with a hexagonal bench, 
on which eighteen people can sit, with a table in 
the middle ; and above the door there are five 
leaden windows. The whole trunk, which is a 
vast mass, is thickly covered with fresh vigorous 
branches." 

The Great Ash at Woburn, described and 
figured by Strutt in his Sylva Britannica, is an 
extraordinary specimen of the size which this tree 
will attain in favourable situations. It is ninety 
feet high ; and the stem alone is twenty-eight feet. 
At the ground it is twenty-three and a half feet 
in circumference : twenty at one foot, and fifteen 
feet three inches at three feet from the ground. 
The diameter of its spread is one hundred and 
thirteen feet, and it contains eight hundred and 
seventy-two feet of timber. 



156 



THE ASH. 



In the parish of CiirV;, about six miles from 
the Lizard point, in Cornwall^ stands a verv fine 
Ash, known by the name of Cnry Great -Tree." 
Although in dimensions it does not equal those 
above mentioned, it is worthy of notice as being 
the largest Forest-tree in the extreme southern 
promontory of England, and for the veneration 
in vvdiich it is held by the inhabitants of the 
surrounding district. It is picturesquely situated 
in the centre of an area formed by the junction of 
tlu'ee roads, and extends its bulky arms over the 
greater part of the open space, a diameter of about 
seventy feet. At the siu'face of the ground it 
measures twenty-seven feet in circumference ; at 
five feet from the ground, fourteen feet. It is 
hollow internally, the cavity at the ground mea- 
suring five feet, but presently decreasing to three 
feet ; at about fourteen feet from the ground it 
sends out six spreading limbs, two of which have 
long been broken off' close to the bole, and all the 
rest are much battered at the extremities."^ 

Some years ago " Cury Great-tree" enjoyed con- 
siderable notoriety from being frequently selected 
as a place of rendezvous for smugglers : and not a 
few stories of lavdess violence perpetrated under its 
spreading branches are current in the neighbour- 
hood. An incident related to me by Captain 
Head is worthy of recordino- as affordino- a strikins: 
contrast to the pacific disposition of tlie present 
inhabitants of the surrounding district. I recol- 
lect having heard from my father that when he 
was a boy of about ten years of age (which must 

In the spring of 1848. during a violent storm, a large limb of 
this tree fell with a terrific crash, to the imminent danger of some 
persons who were at the time passing in a carriage. 



THE ASH. 



157 



have been in the year 1750-3) a large ship 
was wTecked between the Lizard and Kynance 
Cove. At that period the miners and others used 
to assemble in large bodies^ whenever they re- 
ceived tidings of a wrecks and hastened to the spot 
for plunder. On this occasion the tinners of Wen- 
dron^ a parish about ten miles off, got the start of 
the other parts of the mining district^ and were 
the first to lade themselves with the booty, w^hich 
in those days they considered their lawful prey. 
The men of Breage and Germoe (parishes yet far- 
ther distant) on their arrival at this Great-Tree 
received the information that they had been fore- 
stalled ; and knowing that most of the valuables 
would be secured and appropriated before they 
could reach the scene of rapine, resolved on wait- 
ing at this spot and intercepting the plunderers 
on their return. It was pretty late in the after- 
noon w^hen the Wendron men, heavily laden with 
w^hat they considered their rightful gain, arrived 
at the ambuscade of their no less unscrupulous 
waylayers. A furious battle ensued, might being 
on either side the only test of right, and several 
men were killed. But what principally distin- 
guishes this fray from many others of the same 
character is, that a vvoman v/ho was interested for 
one of the parties, having deliberately pulled off 
one of her stockings and placed a large stone in 
it, mounted a hedge closely adjoining the scene 
of conflict, and with this unusual but murderous 
weapon actually beat out the brains of a man of 
the adverse faction." Now, happily, a better 
spirit prevails in Cornwall. In these days, the 
tourist who, at the close of his day's wandering 
along the cliffs and craggy rocks of the Lizard, 



158 



THE ASH. 



rests himself beneath the shade of the great Ash. 
will have no difficuky in picturing to himself the 
deepest horrors of a shipwreck on that iron coast ; 
but will scarcely be brought to believe that so 
dark a deed as that above described was perpe- 
trated on the spot where he is sitting and almost 
within the memory of living men.* 

I must not omit to mention the parent of all 
the AVeeping-AsheSj" vrhich if not approaching 
in beauty the normal condition of the tree, are so 
frequently employed to decorate suburban gar- 
dens. This singular tree was discovered about 
the middle of the last century in a field belonging 
to the Vicar of Gamlingay, near Wunpole^ in Cam- 
bridgeshire. It was then a very old tree, and 
some of its progeny have attained the age of 
sixty years. Grafts (for by means of them only 
is it propagated) have been carried to France, 
Germany, and even to America. 

A very large specimen of the drooping Ash was 
in 1828 or 1829 removed from Wilson's Xur- 
sery at Derby, to Chatsworth, the seat of the Duke 
of Devonshire, a distance of twenty-eight miles. 
It was then fifty years old, and weighed nearly 
eight tons. By the aid of a machine constructed 

* In confirmation of the statement here made, that the name and 
occupation of " Cornish wreckers'' have disappeared. I may add that in 
1845, a French ship was driven ashore within twelve miles of the scene 
of the shipwreck alluded to above. The inhabitants of the neigh- 
bourino: village, Porthleven, rendered every assistance in their power 
to the unfortunate crew, all of whom were saved. The vessel was 
driven so high on the shore that she could not be got oft and was of 
necessity sold as she stood on the beach. Greatly to their honour, 
the poor fishermen, who had bestowed much of their time and labour 
on the preservation of the vessel, declined any remuneration, and. vrith " 
one solitary" exception, begged that the salvage money might be paid- 
over to the houseless strangers, which was accordingly done. 



THE ASH. 



159 



for the express purpose, and the united efforts of 
men and horses, its transit was with difficulty 
effected, though not before the turnpike gates 
along the line of road had been removed, and a 
breach made in the park-wall to admit it. In the 
first year after its transportation it sent out shoots 
twelve inches long. A curious Weeping Ash is to 
be seen in the garden of the Vernon Arms, New 
Road, London. It is trained by trellis work, at 
a height of seven feet from the ground over four- 
teen tables and twenty-eight benches, covering a 
space thirty-six feet long by twenty-one feet wide. 

Another variety of the Ash [Fraxinus hetero- 
phylla) is occasionally to be met with, bearing 
simple leaves, but is only remarkable for wanting 
the graceful lightness of foliage which character- 
izes the common Ash, This, too, is increased 
by grafting, but is altogether unworthy of being 
encouraged. Some botanists consider this, but 
without sufficient grounds, to be a distinct species. 

Jesse, in his interesting Gleanings in Natural 
History, gives the following remarkable instance 
of an extraneous substance being found imbedded 
in the solid timber of an Ash : A person on 
whose accuracy and veracity I can place every 
reliance, informed me that hearing from some of 
his brother-workmen, that in sawing up the butt 
of a large Ash-tree, they had found a bird's nest 
in the middle of it ; he immediately went to the 
spot, and found an Ash cut in two longitudinally 
on the saw-pit, and the bird's nest nearly in the 
centre of the tree. The nest was about two- 
thirds of a hollow globe, and composed of moss, 
hair and feathers, all seemingly in a fresh state. 
There were three eggs in it, nearly white and 



160 



THE ASH. 



somewliat speckled. On examining the tree most 
minutely mth several other workmen, no mark 
or protuberance was found to indicate the least 
injury. The bark was perfectly smooth and the 
tree quite sound." In endeavouring to account 
for this curious fact, we can only suppose that 
some accidental hole was made in the tree before 
it arrived at any great size, in which a bird had 
built its nest, and forsaken it after she had laid 
three eggs. As the tree grew larger, the bark 
grew over the hole, and in process of time the 
nest became imbedded in the tree. 

I cannot better conclude this chapter than by 
quoting Strutt's description of the Ash at Carnock 
in Stirlingshire, with which he closes his Sylva 
Britannica. ^' Its dimensions are as follows : ninety 
feet in height ; thirty-one feet in circumference 
at the ground ; nineteen feet three inchp-^ at five 
feet from the ground, and twenty-one -^/^.J a half 
feet at four feet higher up. The soHd contents of 
the tree are six hundred and seventy-nine cubic 
feet. It was planted about the year 1596, by Sir 
Thos. Nicholson of Carnock, Lord Advocate of 
Scotland in the reign of James VI. It is at pre- 
sent in full vigour and beauty, combining airy 
grace in the lightness of its foliage and the playful 
ramifications of its smaller branches, with solidity 
and strength in its silvery stem and principal arms. 
Delightful indeed is it to contemplate the variety 
and surpassing beauty of many of these houses 
not built with hands," proclaiming to the viewless 
winds, to the eyes of Heaven and to the heart of 
man the wisdom and the love of the Eternal Ar- 
chitect, whose fiat calls them into existence, and 
whose benevolence wills them to live." 



THE BOX. 



BUXUS SEMPERVIRENS. 

Natural Order — E i:phorbiace.e. 
Clab, — MoNffiCiA, Order — Tetraxdria. 

Many cf my readers probably are acquainted 
witli the subject of the present chapter only as a 
neat edging for flower-beds, or as a shapely bush 
in the formal garden of some antiquated manor- 
house : yet the Box-tree has a very good claim to 
be considered a native British tree. Its right is 
certairJy disputed both by some of the old bo- 
tanists, and by the more recent authors who quote 
their opinions ; but inasmuch as it is in undeni- 
able possession of at least one extensive district in 
England, and has been so long enough to give to 
that one the name of Box-hill, I think vv'e are 
quite justified in advocating its claims to be con- 
sidered a native tree. Besides this, not only 
did it giv3 name to Boxley in Kent, and Box- 
well in Gdoucestershire, which would prove, at 
least, that it has grown at these places from time 
immemorial, but it is expressly mentioned by 
several authors as a native. Gerard, for instance, 
>vho wrote in Elizabeth's reign, says : " It 
grov/eth upon sundiy waste and barren hils in 
Englande," Evelyn says : These trees rise 
naturally at Boxley in Kent, and in the county 



162 



THE BOX. 



of Surry, gi^'ii^g name to that chalky hill * (near ; 
the famous ]Mole or Swallow) whither the ladies 
and gentlemen, and other water-drinkers from 
the neighbouring Ebesham Spaw, often resort 
during the heat of summer to walk, collation, and 
divert themselves in those antilex natural alleys 
and shady recesses among the Box-trees, without \ 
taking any such offence at the smell which has of 
late banished it from our groves and gardens." 
Gilpin, too, is of the same opinion ; speaking of 
Box-hill, he says : This plant grows here in full ; 
luxuriance, in its native uncultivated state, mark- ■ 
ing the road on the right with, great beauty."' 
This is, I believe, the only place in Great Britain , 
in which the Box grows in profusion in its wild- 
state. Here it attains the height of about fifteen 
or sixteen feet, and gives to the scenery quite a 
foreign character, the mellow tint of its foliage 
harmonizing well both with the grey of its stem 
and the richer green of any other tree which may ^ 
happen to be associated in the landscape with it ; 
and at seasons when other trees are out of leaf it 
displays an luiconsciousness of mnter, which no : 
artificial shrubbery can compete with. 

Evelyn says, quaintly, but with great propriety: 
He that in winter should behold some of our- 

Boxliill. The Hon. Daines Barringtun, in a paper inserted in. 
the Philosophical Transactions for 1769, says: Now we happen to 
know that this hill was so called from an Earl of Aninders" (the. 
famous antiquary) haring introduced this tree in the reign of James 
or Charles the First/' Barrington does not state whence he obtained 
his knowledge, nor does he account for the fact that a naturalist of 
the preceding century found it growing on " the waste and barren hils : 
in Englande,"'' at least forty years before James the First came to the 
throne. 



THE BOX. 



163 



highest hills in Surry clad with whole woods of 
these trees^ for divers miles in circuit (as in those 
delicious groves of them belonging to the Ho- 
nourable, my Noble Friend, the late Sir Adam 
Brown, of Beckworth Castle), might, without the 
least violence to his imagination, fancy himself 
transported into some new or enchanted country ; 
for, if in any spot of England, 

* Hie ver assiduum, atque alienis mensibus ffistas, 

'tis here 

* Eternal spring and summer all the year.'" 

Most other shrubs, if left to themselves, in a few 
years outgrow their beauty, becoming bare near 
the ground, and assuming an unsightly, straggling 
appearance. But the Box retains its shape for 
many years, and, as it here forms a thick and 
extensive coppice, it gives to the country a cha- 
racter as pleasing as it is unusual. 

In the East it attains a much larger size than 
with us, and is mentioned in the Sacred volume 
in conjunction with several of the largest forest- 
trees : I will set in the desert the fir-tree, and 
the pine, and the box-tree together : that they may 
see, and know, and consider, and understand to- 
gether, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, 
and the Holv One of Israel hath created it." 
(Isaiah xli. 19, 20.) 

As a cultivated tree it was formerly much valu- 
ed by practitioners of the topiary art,"^ for which it 

* Topiary work, or, the art of cutting tlie Booc and other trees into 
artificial forms^ was carried to such an extent among the Romans, that 
both Pliny and Yitruvius use the word topiarius to denote the art of 
the gardener : a proof that, as far as ornament was concerned, the art 
of clipping was considered the highest accomplishment that could be 



164 



THE BOX. 



is better adapted than any other tree, owing to the 
closeness of its habit of growth and its suffering 
no injury from the frequent use of the shears. 

It is a slow grower, attains a great age, and 
will thrive in most soils, and at almost any tem- 
perature. It was so trained as to represent ar- 
chitectural devices, figures of men and animals, 
arcades, and various other forms. The method 
adopted in order to produce these various sem- 
blances was to enclose the tree in a light frame 
of v/ickerwork, constructed in the shape required, 
and to cut back the shoots which protruded till 
a solid mass of verdure was produced. The 
wickerwork was then removed, and the Box-tree 
compelled to retain its grotesque shape by fre- 
quent use of the shears or knife. Even now we 
may occasionally fall in with a vegetable globe or 
some other such absurdity : but gardeners now-a- 
days, instead of wasting their time in distorting 
Nature, employ it more profitably in assisting her 
to produce new varieties, or studying how to rear 
and acclimatize new species, of useful and orna- 
mental plants. 

Various extracts and perfumes were formerly 
made from the lea^ves and bark of this tree, and 
were considered specifics for a yet greater variety 
of diseases. Modern science has, however, dis- 
possessed by a gardener among the ancient Romans. This appears to 
have been equally the case in Europe in modern times ; gardeners, even 
so late as the time of the Commonwealth, being called by Commenius 
pleachers'' (from the old word pleach ** to interweave"). About the 
middle of the seventeenth century, the taste for verdant sculpture 
was at its height in England ; and, about the beginning of the 
eighteenth, it afforded a subject for raillery for the v/its of the day, 
soon afterwards beginning to decline." — Loudon, 



THE BOX. 



165 



carded them all. There seems yet to remain 
a lingering belief that a decoction of the leaves 
strengthens the hair ; but in by-gone days its 
efficacy was deemed greater even than that of any 
of the modern nostrums recommended for the 
same purpose. 

Old Gerard^ who was sufficiently credulous in 
other and less plausible matters (for example, 
that the Barnacle-goose owed its origin to the 
Oak), very wisely o bserves, that the Box is more 
fit for dagger-hafts than to make medicines." 

Box-wood contains a powerful sudorific prin- 
ciple with a bitter taste, which has been separated 
and named JSuximia. M. du Petit Thouars some 
years since stated to the Philomathic Society of 
Paris, that more Box-wood than hops entered into 
the composition of ahnost all the beer in France. 
Olivier de Serres recommends the branches and 
leaves of the Box as by far the best manure for 
the vine ; not only because it is very common in 
the South of France, but because there is no 
plant that by its decomposition afl'ords a greater 
quantity of vegetable mould. Wordsworth relates 
that in several parts of the north of England, 
when a funeral takes place, a basinful of sprigs of 
Box is placed at the door of the house from which 
the coffin is taken up ; and each person who 
attends the funeral takes one of these sprigs, 
and throws it into the grave of the deceased."* 

* Twigs of Rosemary were formerly carried, in like manner, by 
persons attending funerals. In many parts of the Continent the 
custom still continues. Hogarth, in one of his pictures, represents the 
mourners carrying small sprigs. In South AVales it is yet common 
for those who accompany the corpse to carry sprigs of Rosemary-, or 
Yew, which they strew on the coffin after it is lowered into the grave. 



166 



THE BOX. 



" Fresh sprigs of green box-wood, not six months before, 
Filled the funeral basin at Timothy's door." 

In tlie north of Devon newly -made graves may 
frequently be seen decked with sprigs of Box and 
other tillage evergreens : and it takes its place 
among Holly and Laurel as an ornament of our 
churches generally^ at Christmas. 

By the ancients Box«wood was highly valued 
as a material for musical instruments, Buxus^^ 
the name by which it was known, often standing 
for a flute ; " and in our o^vn country it is said 
by Evelyn to have been of special use for the 
turner, engraver, mathematical instrument maker, 
comb, and pipe-maker, who give great prices for 
it by weight, as well as measure ; and by the 
seasoning, and divers manner of cutting, vigorous 
insolations, politure and grinding the roots of this 
tree (as of even our common and neglected Thorn), 
do furnish the inlayer and cabinet-maker ^^-ith 
pieces rarely undulated, and full of variety. Also 
of Box are made wheels or shivers (as our sliip- 
carp enters call them), and pins for blocks and pul- 
leys : pegs for musical instruments : nut -crackers, 
weavers' shuttles, hollar-sticks, bump-sticks, and 
dressers for the shoe-maker, rulers, rolling-pins, 
pestles, mall-balls, beetles, tops, chess-men, screws, 
bobbins for bone-lace, spoons, nay the stoutest 
axle-trees." 

The Box-wood used by the cabinet-makers 
and turners in France is chiefly that of the root. 
The to^yl\ of St. Claude, near which is one of the 

* Buxus was also used to signify "a comb" and "a boy's top,"' 
which were usually made of the same material. 



THE BOX. 



167 



largest natural Box-woods in Europe, is almost 
entirely inhabited by turners, who make snuff- 
boxes, rosary beads, forks, spoons, buttons, and 
numerous other articles. The wood of some roots 
is more beautifully marked, or veined, than that 
of others, and the articles manufactured vary in 
price accordingly. The wood of the trunk is 
rarely found of sufficient size for blocks in France ; 
and when it is, it is so dear, that the entire trunk 
of a tree is seldom sold at once, but a few feet 
are disposed of at a time, which are cut off the 
living tree as they are wanted. Boxes, &c., formed 
of the trunk are easily distinguished from those 
made of the root, the former always displaying 
a beautiful and very regular star, which is never 
the case with the latter."* 

Box is the hardest and heaviest of all European 
woods, the only one among them that will sink in 
water, or that is sold by weight. By far the most 
important use to which Box-w^ood is applied is as 
a material for wood-engraving, an art which has 
now attained such perfection, and is in such great 
request for the illustration of books, that it may 
not be uninteresting if I here introduce a short 
sketch of its history. 

A method of multiplying copies of a pattern 
by means of a stamp was known to the ancient 
Babylonians, as may be proved by an examination 
of some bricks brought from the site of the city 
of Babylon, and preserved in the British Museum. 
These bear in them characters evidently produced 
by pressure from a wooden block while the clay was 
in a soft state. At a later period, the Chinese and 

* Loudon. 



168 



THE BOX. 




Indians were accustomed to print on paper, cotton, | 
and silk (though it does not appear that they had ^ 
carried the art to such perfection as to delineate 
figures), long before the custom was practised in 
Europe. In the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- 
turies, when writing was an accomplishment con- 
fined to the learned, a wooden stamp was used in 
the place of a sign -manual for at- 
testing wTitten documents; and in 
the fifteenth century, or perhaps 
earlier, the art was applied to 
stamping figures on playing-cards. 
If the earliest cards bore designs 
at all resembling the grotesque 
figures on modern specimens, wood engraving was 
as yet very far from having any pretension to be 
considered one of the fine arts, or in the least 
degree connected with them. Most probably the 
latter are exact copies, for so utterly unnatural 
are the kings and queens depicted on them, that 
it is scarcely possible they can be anything else 
than traditional absurdities.* A modern playing- 
card may therefore be considered as aff'ording a 
fair specimen of the perfection of w^ood-engraving 
in the fifteenth century. The next step in advance 
was the delineation of figures of the Saints, on 
which account the art received the patronage of 
the Church. The oldest wood-cut of which there 
is any authentic record, is one of St. Christopher 
carrying an infant Saviour through the water, and 

* A similar instance of obstinate adherence to an old, and there- 
fore familiar, pattern, a long way behind the existing state of the 
Arts, may be observed in the never-ending "willow pattern" on., 
earthenware. 



THE BOX. 



169 



bearing the date of 1423. It is of folio size, and 
coloured in the manner of our playing-cards. 




(Ertstofort faciem trie quaruiKjue tueris JKtllesimo 
Ilia nmpe trie morte mala noii morteris.* XX° tertio. 



* Translation : — Gaze on the face of Christoplier every day, 

So on that day thou shalt not die an evil death. 



1423. 



170 



THE BOX. 



Such engravings appear to have been distri- 
buted as devotional pictures among the laity, 




and to have been occasionally preserved by the 
monks, who pasted them into the earliest printed 
books with which they were furnished. That of 
St. Christopher above alluded to, was discovered 
in the monastery of Buxheim, near Meiningen, 
and is now in the possession of Earl Spencer. 
Collections of them appear also to have been 



THE BOX. 



171 



published before the invention of printing from 
moveable types, for the use of those who either 
were unable to read, or could not afford to pur- 
chase a manuscript copy of the Scriptures. The 
most important of these is the Bihlia Pauperum, 
or Poor Preacher's Bible, a collection of histori- 
cal subjects from the Old and New Testament, 
accompanied by explanatory inscriptions in Latin. 
This appears to have been a most popular book, 
for not only are there many copies of it, struck 
from different blocks, but it was repeatedly 
printed, long after the introduction of printing 
with moveable types. Another work of the same 
kind. The Apocalypse, or History of St. John, was 
published about 1434. Of this there are six dif- 
ferent editions, and the execution of some of the 
wood-engravings evinces considerable abihty. 

The history of the art here divides into two 
branches, with one of which, the art of printing, 
properly so called, I must leave my readers to 
acquaint themselves from other sources. In the 
fifteenth century we find the two combined in 
the Psalter, published by Faust and Schasffer at 
Muntz. The initial letters, engraved in wood, 
are executed in the most beautiful style of the 
art. This custom soon became general, and was 
introduced into England by Caxton, in 1476. 
Not long after this, Mair in Germany published 
prints, the dark parts of which were produced by 
an impression from a copper-plate engraving, the 
lighter from a wooden block, but of course by 
two distinct operations. About the same time, 
Carpi, in Italy, produced wood-cuts by the tedious 
process of printing on the same paper from three 



172 



THE BOX. 



several blocks^ the first containing the outline, 
the second the dark shadows, the third the light 
tints. But a much greater improvement was ef- 
fected by Albert Durer, who, by a simpler pro- 
cess, produced wood-cuts in which the figures 
were more skilfully designed and grouped, the 
laws of perspective more carefully attended to, 
and a variety of minor details introduced, w^hich 
gave to the subject more of the stamp of truth 
and Nature. The names of various other artists 
might be mentioned, who from time to time dis- 
tinguished themselves by the eminence which they 
attained, until the close of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, when the custom of illustrating books with 
copper-plate engravings came into vogue, and 
wood-engraving was entirely neglected, so far as 
it regarded the delineation of subjects of interest, 
being employed solely for common decoration. 
That this should have happened is very remark- 
able, inasmuch as the superiority of wooden blocks 
over copper-plates in illustrating printed books is 
very great. In copper-plate engraving, the lines 
from which the design is transferred are sunk into 
the metal, either by the corroding efi*ects of a 
mineral acid, or by a sharp-pointed steel instru- 
ment. Consequently the sunken lines must be 
filled with ink before an impression can be struck 
off : but in ordinary letter-press printing, a raised 
surface alone receives the ink and transfers the 
copy. Hence arises an impossibility of printing 
both by the same process. But in wood-engrav- 
ing the thickness of the wood being carefully re- 
gulated by the height of the type with which it 
is to be used, the block is set up in the same 



THE BOX. 



173 



page with the types ; and only one impression is 
required to print the letter-press and the cut 
which is to illustrate it. Added to this, the fric- 
tion (though produced simply by the soft fleshy 
ball of the thumb) which is required to charge 
the lines of a copper-plate engraving with ink, 
soon wears away the sharpness of the lines, and 
renders every new impression less perfect than 
its predecessor. But in printing wood-cuts, the 
whole of the pressure being vertical, there is no 
perceptible wearing away of the block, so that 
the goodness of the impression depends only on 
the materials employed, and the care of the 
printer.^ But even on the supposition that the 
mechanical advantages of each were equal, the 
preference must be awarded to w^ood-cuts for 
the illustration of printed books, inasmuch as 
there is a harmony produced in the page by the 
engraving and letter-press being of the same colour, 
which is very seldom the case when copper-plate 
vignettes are introduced with letter-press. 

In spite however of all these advantages, the 
art of engraving on wood declined, and was all 
but lost, when it w^as revived in England by the 
celebrated Thomas Bewick, an artist who not 
only restored the taste for the art, but executed, 
in the course of a long and industriously spent 
life, numerous works, which his most zealous 

* In an interesting Memoir of Bewick, prefixed to the sixth 
Yolume of Jardine's Naturalist's Library, it is stated, that, " many of 
Bewick's blocks have printed upwards of 300,000 : the head-piece of 
the Newcastle Courant above 1,000,000 ; and a small vignette for 
a capital letter in the Newcastle Chronicle, during a period of twenty 
years, at least 2,000,000.'' 



174 



THE BOX. 



followers can scarcely clo more than hope to 
equal. His excellence did not consist in the mere 
mechanical skill which he displayed : that^ great 
as it was^ resulted from his intense desire to em- 
body his exquisitely acute perceptions of Nature. 
His wood-cuts, therefore, are not simply repre- 
sentations of birds and beasts, just so far like the 
originals as to enable another person to discover 
what is meant : — but indexes of his mind, like 
the solemn sound of Handel's music, the majestic 
flow of ]Milton's poetry, the comprehensive exact- 
ness of Linnseus's descriptions. No one can have 
failed to notice this, who has turned over the 
pages of The General History of Quadrupeds" 
or of British Birds:" Nature seems to be alive 
in all of them ; the very tail-pieces, trifling 
though the subjects of many of them may be, 
are replete with interest, owing to the remarka- 
ble power which the author possessed of catching 
and pourtraying the peculiar characteristics of 
Nature, whether animate or inanimate. Much 
of this taste and skill Bewick imparted to his 
pupils,* and to the same qualities the modern 
school of wood-engraving is indebted for its prin- 
cipal excellence. 

Several mechanical improvements have of late 
years been made in wood- engraving and printing; 

* I was much interested, some years since, in the north of Devon, 
by falling in with a rustic well, suimounted by a rude stone cross 
with a wicket gate by its side. It was just the sort of subject that 
Bewick would have chosen for a vignette, I afterwards found that 
the proprietor (who I am sure will forgive me for this mention of 
him) was formerly a pupil of Bewick, and. before his accession to 
fortune gave no slight promise of sharing his master's fame. {See 
vignette attlie e?id of this chapter. ) 



THE BOX. 



175 



but, however the father of the modern art may 
be surpassed in skill, it is next to impossible for 
any one to excel him in excellence of design. 

Owing to the numerous illustrated works now 
almost daily issuing from the press, the number 
of artists in this Kne has greatly augmented, 
and Box-wood has proportionately increased in 
price. 

In 1815, the trees which were cut down on 
Box-hill produced upwards of £10,000. A great 
deal of that imported from Turkey, Odessa, and 
other places is inapplicable to the purposes of the 
wood-engraver ; nevertheless, in London alone, as 
much is annually consumed in vrorks of art as 
amounts to many thousands of pounds. 

There are, besides the Tree-Box, two varieties 
of Dwarf -Box, which were fonnerly much em- 
ployed in forming patterns in flower-gardens^ 
imitating the designs of embroidery. This fashion 
is now quite gone out, having, like topiary-work, 
given place to the much more rational taste of 
cultivating various exotic plants ; but representa- 
tions of quaintly figured gardens may yet be seen 
in old engravings. Dwarf-Box is now only 
planted as an edging to garden-beds, for which 
its low vriry habit well adapts it, preventing the 
loose earth from falling into the path, without 
rising high enough to shade the plants in its 
neighbourhood, or affording a secure refuge for 
vermin. It may be propagated by dividing the 
roots, or by planting cuttings in autumn. The 
best time for clipping Box is in June, when 
the new" shoots soon obliterate all traces of the 
shears. 



176 



THE BOX. 



The flower of the Box is inconspicuous, being 
of a greenish yellow colour, and growing in clus- 
ters in the axils^ of the leaves ; it ripens its seed 
at Box-hill. Flowers have never been observed 
on the dwarf variety. 

Axil, Latin, axilla^ the arm-pit ; in botanical phraseology " the 
angle between the leaf-stalk and stem." 



N 



THE HAWTHORN. 



Crat.^gus Oxyacantha. 

Natural order — Rosacea. 
Class — IcosAXDRiA. Order — Pentagynia. 

There is^ I think, no tree, the shnple mention 
of which excites snch pleasurable emotions as the 
Hawthorn. Never attaining a remarkable size, 
neither stately in growth, nor graceful in form, 
it yet possesses an interest to which many a 
loftier and more elegant child of the forest can- 
not aspire. We may see it applied to the most 
homely and unromantic purposes, clipped by the 
hedger's shears of every particle of natural spray, 
and reduced, as it were by line and plummet, 
to the uniform proportions of a mere verdant 
wall ; yet the tree to which the mind reverts 
when the Hawthorn is mentioned is independent 
of any such associations. It does not, it is true, 
carry us away to forests or woodland mountains, 
to the mid fastnesses of Nature, where men and 
the things of men have no place. Were we 
acquainted with it only in such situations, it 
would want half its interest — but it recurs to 
the memory as the necessary appendage of the 
village, to which, in our earlier years, it was our 
highest privilege to make our holiday excursions 
— the veteran record of our infantile sports, re- 
maining unchanged w^hile the stern realities of 



180 



THE HAWTHORN. 



life have been ^vo^king in ourselves a change too . 
perceptible — a common shelter from sun or shower 
to the rude patriarchs of the hamlet, the same- 
group (nearly, for some are not) that half a cen- 
tury ago, tottered as feebly to their childish 
amusements, as now they do to their shady seat 
beneath its branches, and from the self-same 
cabins too — and the contemporary of all the by- 
gone sports that old and young loved to look back 
upon, or forward to, with equal mterest. 

The Hawthorn, too, is a tree which, from its 
association with the village festivities of the first 
of May, possesses a kind of antiquarian interest, 
which is deepened by the recollection that it 
illustrates the simple annals of the poor." The 
first day of the month, from which it derived its 
name, " May -bush," was formerly a general rustic 
holiday, looked forward to, and prepared for, 
with as much zest as accompanies many a nobler 
entertainment ; and it was a matter of no little 
solicitude whether the Hawthorn would be fully 
blown in good time; for a "bunch of May" was 
the cro^raing ornament of the Maypole, and en- 
circled the head of the May-queen, her consort 
for the day being crowned with the more manly 
Oak. 

Before the alteration of the style* in 1752, 
the Hawthorn rarely failed to be in flovv'er in 

* The ancient church calendar was constructed on the erroneous 
supposition that the year contained 365^ days exactly, being nearly 
twelve minutes too much. The error, therefore, in 129 years amounts 
to a whole day. In consequence of the inconrenience which was 
foiand to result from this error diuing a long course of years, Pope 
Gregor)" XIII., in the month of March, 1582, issued a brief, in 
which he abolished the old calendar, and substituted that which has 
since been received in all Christian countries, except Russia, under 
the name of the Gregorian Calendar or New Style {S.S.). Gregory. 



THE HAWTHORN. 



181 



good time : but since that period^ May-day falling 
eleven or twelve days earlier, its blossoms are 
rarely fully expanded even in the south of Eng- 
land, until the second week in the month.* In 
mountainous districts, the Highlands, for instance, 
it is frequently in full perfection so late as the 
middle of June. 

By the ancient Greeks its flowers were made 
the emblem of Hope, and it was probably regarded 
in the same light by the Romans, as we read that 
its wood was chosen to make the torch carried 
before the bride at nuptial processions. In some 
countries it is regarded with a kind of veneration, 
from beino^ believed to be the tree used to form 
the crown placed on our Blessed Saviour's head 
before His Crucifixion. Whether or not this 
opinion be a correct one is scarcely a fit subject 
for discussion in this or any other work. But 
if it really be the case, it is not improbable that 
it was selected by the Roman soldiers with the 

in order to restore tlie commencement of the year to the same place 
in the seasons that it had occupied at the time of the Council of 
Nice (a.d. 325), directed the day following the feast of St. Francis, 
that is to say the 5th of October, 1582, to be reckoned as the 15th 
of that month. The New Style was adopted in Britain in 1752 ; 
from that year till 1800, May-day fell eleven days earlier ; and dur- 
ing the present century it falls twelve days earlier than when calcu- 
lated by the Old Style (O.S.) ; May-day of the Season, being now 
the 13th day of the month. 

^ I have, however, seen it in Devonshire so early as the 29th of 
April : and in the year, 1846, it was gathered in Cornwall on the 
18th of April. So unusually mild was the season of that year, that 
the Oaks atClowance, Cornwall, had made shoots between two and three 
inches long on the 11th of April ; though it not unfrequently happens 
that the Oak is not sufficiently in leaf to hide King Charles'' on the 
29th of !May. The blossom of the Hawthorn, though early, Avas so 
exceedingly scarce that many trees might be searched in vain for a 
single sprig, and scarcely one tree in a hundred bore an average crop 
of flowers. 



182 



THE HAWTHORN. 



object of making the emblem of hope and hap- 
piness the instrument of inflicting pain. Such 
a motive would accord well with the spirit which 
demanded the Cross and the purple robe. In 
some parts of France, the country people affirm 
that the Hawthorn utters groans and sighs on 
the evening of Good Friday ; and when a thunder- 
storm is impending they gravely adorn their hats 
with a bunch of its leaves, in the belief that, thus 
protected, the lightning cannot touch them. It 
is also related, that on the morning which fol- 
lowed the horrible massacre of the French Pro- 
testants by the Roman Catholics on St. Bartho- 
lomew's day, a Hawthorn in the churchyard 
of St. Innocent, in Paris, suddenly put forth its 
blossoms for the second time. 

A custom exists at the Seven Churches, Glen- 
dalough, in the County of Wicklow, of hanging 
shreds of clothing to an old Thorn which over- 
shadows a Holy Well, on the day on which the 
Patron Saint Kevin is commemorated. The same 
practice is said to be common in many other parts 
of Ireland. It is hard to say in what super- 
stitious belief this singular custom originated, or 
what benefit the deluded fanatics suppose to 
accrue to themselves from its observance. It is 
not, however, confined to the Roman Catholics of 
Ireland, for the Mahommedans of Africa, and the 
Pagans of South America, practise a similar observ- 
ance. Suez," says a traveller in the East, was 
distant twenty-four miles, and these were accom- 
plished in four hours and a half. Only two small 
trees are to be met with in the desert — a space of 
eighty-four miles — one of which is decorated wdth, 
and consecrated to, the rags of the pious pilgrims 



THE HAWTHORN. 



183 



who cross the sandy and rocky waste over which 
we passed ; they en route to Mecca^ ice to a less holy 
shrine. The tree is thickly covered with pendent 
fragments of the well-worn clothing of countless 
pilgrims^ deposited there in memory of their desert 
journey." * Darwin, in his Journal of Researches 
into the Natural History of the Countries visited 
during the voyage of H, S, Beagle round the 
World, in the account of his journey from the 
mouth of the Rio Negro to Buenos Ayres, says : 
Shortly after passing the first spring, we came in 
sight of a famous tree, which the Indians reverence 
as the altar of AValleechu. It is situated on a high 
part of the plain, and hence is a land-mark visible 
at a great distance. As soon as a trihe of Indians 
come in sight of it, they offer their adorations 
by loud shouts. The tree itself is low, much 
branched, and thorny : just above the root it has a 
diameter of about three feet. It stands by itself 
\vithout any neighbour, and was indeed the first 
tree we saw ; afterwards we met with a few others 
of the same kind^ but they were far from common. 
Being winter the tree had no leaves, but, in their 
place, numberless threads, by which the various 
off'erings, such as cigars, bread, meat, pieces of 
cloth, &c. had been suspended. Poor Indians, 
not having anything better, only pull a thread 
out of their ponchos, and fasten it to the tree. 
Richer Indians are accustomed to pour spirits 
and mate into a certain hole, and likewise to 
smoke upwards, thinking thus to aff'ord all possi- 
ble gratification to Walleechu. To complete the 
scene, the tree was surrounded by the bleached 
bones of horses which had been slaughtered as 

* "A Year and a Day in the East." 



184 



THE HAWTHORN. 



sacrifices. All Indians of every age and sex make 
their offerings : they then think that their horses 
will not tire, and that they themselves shall be 
prosperous. The Gaucho (countrjanan) who told 
me this, said that in time of peace he had wit- 
nessed this scene, and that he and others used to 
wait till the Indians had passed by, for the sake 
of stealing from Walleechu the offerings. The 
Gauchos think that the Indians consider the tree 
as the god itself; but it seems far more probable 
that they regard it as the altar." 

Neither of the authors quoted above states to 
what species the tree belongs. Darwin, however, 
mentions that the one seen by him was thorny," 
and if, as is most probable, the African tree 
was an Acacia, which is copiously furnished with 
thorns, the resemblance is very striking and re- 
markable. The latter tree may have approached 
even more closely in appearance to our Havv'thorn. 
Bruce says that the Arabs regard with particular 
reverence a shrub or tree which is very like our 
Hawthorn both in form and flower. It was 
with a branch of this tree, which they call El- 
vah," that they believe Moses to have sweetened 
the waters of Marah. Trees in the desert, I 
need scarcely remark, on the rare occasions when 
they are found, are always in the vicinity of 
wells. 

It is far from improbable that the legend of 
The Glastonbury Thorn" was originally con- 
nected with some superstitious veneration of the 
Hawthorn, yet more ancient than itself. x\c cord- 
ing to this legend, Joseph of Arimathgea, attend- 
ed by twelve companions, came to preach the 
Gospel in Britain, and landed on the Isle of 



THE HAWTHORN. 



185 



Avelon."^ Here he fixed his staff in the ground 
(a dry Thorn sapling, which had been his com- 
panion through all the countries he had traversed) 
and fell asleep. When he awoke, he found, to 
his great surprise, that his staff had taken root, 
and was covered with white blossoms. From this 
miracle, he drew a very natural conclusion, that as 
the use of his staff was taken from him, it was or- 
dained that he should fix his abode in this place. 
Here, therefore, he built a chapel, which, by the 
piety of succeeding times, increased to its sub- 
sequent magnificence. Gilpin, in his Observations 
on the Western Farts of England, gives the fol- 
lowing amusing account of the veneration with 
which it was regarded at no more distant period 
than the close of the last century. I should ill 
deserve the favours I met with from the learned 
antiquarian who has the care of these ruins, 
though he occupies only the humble craft of a 
shoemaker, if I did not attempt to do some justice 
to his zeal and piety. No picturesque eye could 
more admire these venerable remains for their 
beauty, than he did for their sanctity. Every 
stone was the object of his devotion. But above 
all the appendages of Glastonbury, he reverenced 
most the famous Thorn which sprang from St. 
Joseph's staff, and blossoms at Christmas. 

It was at that time," he said, when the King 
resolved to alter the common course of the year,-}- 
that he first felt distress for the honour of the 
house of Glastonbury. If the time of Christmas 

* The high ground on which the Abbey of Glastonbury stands is 
thus named, and tradition asserts that it T\'as in remote times really an 
island, the meadows around it having been since formed by the retiring 
of the sea. 

t The alteration of the Calendar alluded to at p. IBO. 



186 



THE HAWTHORN. 



were changed, who could tell how the credit of 
this miraculous plant might be affected ? In short, 
with the fortitude of a Jewish seer, he ventured to 
expostulate with the King upon the subject ; and 
informed his Majesty, in a letter, of the disgrace 
that might possibly ensue if he persisted in his 
design of altering the natural course of the year. 
But though his conscience urged him upon this 
bold action, he could not but own that the flesh 
trembled. He had not the least doubt, he said, 
but the King would immediately send dov.ii and 
have him hanged. He pointed to the spot where 
the last Abbot of Glastonbury was executed for 
not surrendering his Abbey ; and he gave us to 
understand there were men now alive who could 
suffer death, in a good cause, with equal fortitude. 
His zeal, however, was not put to this severe trial. 
The King was more merciful than he expected, 
for though his Majesty did not follow his advice, 
it never appeared that he took the least offence at 
the freedom of his letter." 

Both Gilpin and his simple-minded informant 
were in error in supposing the tree then standing 
to have been the identical one with which the le- 
gend is connected. The original Holy Thorn," 
which stood on Weary -all-hill (the spot where 
Joseph and his companions are said to have sat 
do^ra aU-iueary with their journey), originally had 
two distinct trunks, one of which was destroyed 
by a Puritan in Queen Elizabeth's reign, and the 
other, together with many yet more interesting 
relics of antiquity, shared the same fate during the 
Great Rebellion. If we may credit James Howell, . 
the author of Dodona's Grove (printed in 1644), 
the mistaken fanatic who completed the work of 



THE HAWTHORN. 



187 



destruction did not go mipnnished: "And he was 
well serv'd for his blind Zeale, who going to cut 
doune an ancient white Hauthorne-Tree^ which, 
because she budded before others, might be an oc- 
casion of Superstition^ had some of the prickles 
flew in to his eye, and made him Monocular."* 

There are, however, still in existence two trees 
of the same description, evidently much above a 

* In Ireland, to the present day, it is the popular belief that " no 
one will thrive after rooting up an old Thorn." Some years since a 
gentleman residing in Carrickfergus, co. Antrim, employed as his gar- 
dener an old artiller}'man, named Peter S***^ who had been invalided 
in consequence of wounds received in battle, and passed among his 
comrades as a brave soldier. One day Peter received directions to 
uproot a "reverend Hawthorn,'' which, together with the hedge in 
which it stood, was to make way for some improvements in the garden. 
He immediately set to work, and soon cleared the hedge of all that 
grew in it except the Thorn, the roots -of which had penetrated deeply 
into the ground, and Avhich remained untouched. Next day, the 
gentleman asked him why the tree had not been removed as he de- 
sired. Peter answered, " that it was hardly possible — that it would 
be dangerous to attempt it." His master remonstrated with him, ex- 
plaining why it was necessary that the Thorn should be included in 
the order for removal, and left him with a strict injunction to set 
about the task immediately, which he, very reluctantly, then prepared 
to do. Next day, however, to his surprise, he found the devoted tree 
still maintaining its ground, erect and uninjured. On sharply question- 
ing the offender why he had not followed his directions, poor Peter, 
with the utmost solemnity, assured him that " he had commenced the 
work, but at the moment his pick-axe struck the root of the tree 
he received a violent blow from sonie invisible hand that made him 
stagger and almost fall to the ground — moreover, that on going home, 
he found that just at the same hour, and he had no doubt, at the very 
same instant, his wife had experienced a similar blow.'' After this his 
master did not urge him further in the matter, but got some other 
person to extirpate the mysterious tree, and the task was accomplished 
without any further evil result. Crofton Croker, who is most 
learned in the superstitions of Ireland, remarks that, according to 
the popular belief, " On May-eve the evil Elves seem to be particu- 
larly active and powerful : to those to whom they are inimical they 
give a blotu u?iperceived^ the consequence of which is lameness." There 
can be little doubt that these two superstitions are connected in their 
origin with that recorded in the text respecting the Glastonbury 
Thorn. 



188 



THE HAWTHORN. 



hundred years old, which no doubt were either 
grafts, or sprung from seeds, of the original tree. J 
From one of these, which stands within the pre- jj 
cincts of the Abbey, in a garden adjoining St. 
Joseph's Chapel, I received, on the 11th of Febru- 
ary, 1846, a sprig, in full leaf, and furnished with 
perfectly formed flower-buds. The tree from 
which it was gathered measures two and a half 
feet in circumference, and I was assured by the 
vicar of Glastonbury, Dr. Parfitt, that it had been 
budding and blossoming since Christmas. It blos- 
soms a second time in May, and from these latter 
flowers only is fruit produced. Formerly, the 
blossom^s were so highly valued, that they were 
sold at Bristol, and even exported to various 
parts of Europe ; and the variety is still propa- 
gated by grafts in the gardens of the curious, but 
only on account of the strange efforts which it 
annually makes to commence spring in mid-winter. 

Miss Strickland, in her Lives of the Queens of 
England, mentions that its branches were deemed 
worthy of being presented to royalty. " Christ- 
mas," saj^s Pere Cyprian, " was ahvays observed 
in this country, especially at the King's palaces, 
with greater pomp than in any other realm in 
Europe." Among other ancient ceremonies now 
forgotten, he mentions a pretty one, in which 
a branch of the Glastonbury Thorn, which usually 
flowers on Christmas-eve, used to be brought up 
in procession, and presented in great pomp to the 
King and Queen of England on Christmas morn- 
ing. Pere Gamache, in mentioning this cere- 
mony, says, this blossoming Thorn was much 
venerated by the English, because in their tradi- 
tions they say that St. Joseph of Arimathaea 



THE HAWTHORN. 



189 



brought to Glastonbury a thorn out of our Lord's 
Crown, and planting it in the earth, it burgeoned 
and blossomed, and yearly produced blossoms to 
decorate the altar on Christmas-eve mass — 

" That only night in all the year 
Saw the stoled priest the chalice rear." 

AVORDSWORTH. 

The Pere seems to enjoy very much the follow- 
ing anecdote of Charles I., though it was against 
the Catholics : — ^^Well! " said the King, extend- 
ing his hand, one Christmas-day, to take the 
flowering branch of Glastonbury Thorn, " this is 
a miracle, is it ? " " Yes, your Majesty," replied 
the officer who presented it, a miracle peculiar 
to England, and regarded with great veneration 
by the Catholics here." ^' How so," said the King 
^Svhen this miracle opposes itself to the Pope ? " 
(every one looked astonished in the royal circle, 
papist and protestant.) ^'You bring me this 
miraculous branch on Chris tm.as- day, old style. 
Does it always observe the old style, by which 
we English celebrate the nativity, in its time of 
flowering?" asked the King. Always," replied 
the venerators of the miracle. Then," said King 
Charles, the Pope and your miracle differ not a 
little, for he always celebrates Christmas-day ten 
days earlier by the calendar of new style, which 
has been ordained at Rome by Papal orders for 
nearly a centiuy." This dialogue probably put 
an end to this old custom, which, setting all idea 
of miracle aside, was a picturesque one ; for a 
flowering branch on Christmas -day is a pleasing 
gift, w^hether in a court or a cottage. 

The same authoress thus accounts for the fact 
that the Hawthorn was selected to be the dis-^ 



190 



THE HAWTHORN. 



tinguishing badge of the House of Tudor. After 
the battle of Bosworth, in which Richard III. was 
slain on Redmore Heath, and his body ignomi- 
niously stripped, the crown was hidden by a 
soldier in a Hawthorn Bush, but was soon found, 
and carried back to Lord Stanley, Nvho placed it 
on the head of his son-in-law, saluting him by 
the title of Henry VII., while the -victorious army 
sang Te Deum on the blood-stained heath. It 
was in memory of the picturesque fact that the 
red-berried Hawthorn once sheltered the crovra 
of England, that the House of Tudor assumed 
the device of a crown in a bush of fruited Haw- 
thorn. The proverb of ^ Cleave to the crown 
though it hang on a bush,' alludes to the same 
circumstance." 

The sight of the Hawthorn always recalls images 
of rural life ; but we must go back to a somewhat 
remote period to find it invested with its full hon- 
ours. During the reign of Henry VIIL, ^lay-sports 
were the favourite diversion of all classes, not only 
in the country, but even in London. On the eve 
of May-day the citizens used to go in companies 
to the neighbouring woods and groves, some to 
Highgate or Hampstead, some to Greenwich, some 
to Shooter's Hill ; there the night was spent in 
cutting down green branches, in preparing the 
May -pole, and in a variety of sports and pastimes. 
On their return early in the morning, the revellers 
adorned the ^lay-pole with flowers and foliage 
from one end to the other, the pole itself being 
previously painted with the most brilliantly varie- 
gated colours. The pole was dragged to its des- 
tination by a large number of oxen, each ox 
having a nosegay of flowers tied to the tips of his 



THE HAWTHORN. 



191 



horns : men, women, and children, all dressed in 
their gayest habiliments and laden with green 
boughs, completed the procession. As they passed 
through the streets of London, they found 

^' Each street a park, 
Made green, and trimm'd with trees ; " 

the church-porches decorated 

With Hawthorn buds, and sweet eglantine, 
And garlands of roses 

they heard music sounding from e\ery quarter, 
and here and there they beheld in their way some 
May-pole, preserved from the last year, already 
elevated, and a wide circle of beaming faces 
dancing round it. The church of St. Andrew 
the Apostle was called St. Andrew Under shafts 
from the circumstance that from time immemorial 
a May -pole or shaft had been set up there, which 
towered considerably above the church -tower. 
Long streamers or flags were now attached to the 
pole, which was then finally reared to its proper 
position amidst the loud cheers of the multitudes 
gathered round. Summer-halls, bowers, and ar- 
bours were now formed near it ; the Lord and Lady 
of the ^lay were chosen, and decorated with scarfs, 
ribbons, and other braveries; and then the dances, 
feastings, and merriment of the day fairly began. 
The King himself frequently took part in these 
festivities, for, as we learn from HalVs Chronicle, 
his Grace being young, and not willing to be 
idle, rose in the morning very early to fetch May 
or green boughs, himself fresh and richly appa- 
relled, and clothed all his knights, squires, and 
gentlemen in white satin, and all his guard and 
yeomen of the crown in white sarcenet. And so 



192 



THE HAWTHORN. 



went every man with his bow and arrows shooting 
to the wood, and so repaired again to the court, 
every man with a green bough in his cap ; and at 
his returning, many hearing of his going a-May- 
ing were desirous to see him shoot ; for at that 
time his Grace shot as strong and as great a 
length as any of his guard." During the Great 
Rebellion, the Parliament ordered that all and 
singular May-poles be taken down." When 
Charles II. ascended the throne, the famous 
May-pole of the Strand* was restored with great 
pomp and rejoicing, amidst multitudes of people, 
whose shouts and acclamations were heard from 
time to tim.e throughout the whole day. When 
this pole had ceased to be the centre of the merry 
May-day circles, and the interest with which it 
was originally regarded had faded away, it was 
given to Sir Isaac Newton, and by his directions 
removed to Wanstead, to support the then largest 
telescope in the world, f 

Of late years the celebrity of the Hawthorn 
as the symbol of May-day festivities has greatly 
declined. In London, the number of those, 

" That do the fair and living trees neglect, 
Yet the dead timber prize," 

is so vastly increased, that the May -bush swells 
its gems" and " salutes the welcome sun" without 
exciting a passing thought. The only class who, 
now-a-days, 

With due honour usher in the May," 



^ " Amidst the area wide they took their stand, 

W^here the tall May-pole once overlooked the Strand." 

Pope. 

t Knight's London, vol. i. p. 174. 



THE HAWTHORN. 



193 



are tlie poor chimney-sweeps, who, on this their 
single holiday, put off their sable suit for one day 
in the year, to deck themselves with flowers and 
green branches, and, after all, gain but little 
sympathy for their maimed rights." In the 
rural districts we may see, here and there, the 
tall May-pole standing all the year round, but 
never decked with flowers, never made the centre 
of festivity. In a few remote parishes, the poor 
farmer's boy yet rises earlier on May -morning 
than on other days, and hastens to attach a 
branch of Hawthorn to the cottage doors, claim- 
ing as a reward, when the inmates are a-stir, 
a slice of bread and cream ; and, in some few 
towns and villages, principally in the West of 
England, children on May -day carry round from 
door to door, garlands of flowers decorated with 
birds' eggs, and beg contributions of half-pence. 
But, as far as regards legends, or the merry days 
of old, the Hawthorn has fallen into the sere 
and yellow leaf." 

I am indebted to a friend, the Rev. F. Webber^ 
for the following account of the effort made by 
the celebrated scholar Dr. Parr to keep up the 
festivities of May-day. During one of my short 
vacations in the year 182 — , accompanied by a 
friend who is now rector of a parish in Dorsetshire, 
I took a few days' ramble through some of the most 
interesting parts of the county of Warwick. At 
Leamington we fell in with a young gentleman, 
who, after introducing us to the localities most 
worthy of note in the neighbourhood, added 
to the obligation we were already under to him 
for his courtesy, by enabling us to become 
acquainted with the famous Dr. Parr, who, he 

o 



194 



THE HAWTHORN. 



told US, added to his ardent love of ancient lore, 
a scarcely less anxiety to preserve in their pristine 
purity all the festivities of ' The May.' 

^'Accordingly we proceeded to*^ Hatton, the 
doctor's residence, and on arriving at the village, 
we found a gigantic May-pole erected in an open 





MAY-POLE. 



space, decorated with innumerable flowers, and 
surrounded by the villagers in their holiday attire. 
Among a crowd of ladies and gentlemen, we 
observed a portly personage, attired in full canon- 
icals, and wearing a wig of most orthodox dimen- 
sions, whom we could not for a moment hesitate 



THE HAWTHORN. 



195 



in pronouncing to be the mighty Grecian. On our 
introduction to him by our friend, he received 
us with the greatest urbanity and kindness, and 
immediately allotted us our partners in the dance. 
I forget the person selected by the doctor to 
lead off the dance with him, but I think it was 
the oldest lady of the village. After we had 
danced for some time, we adjourned by parti- 
cular invitation to the parsonage, where we were 
hospitably refreshed after our exertions, the party 
on the green, I doubt not, being not a httle glad 
to be relieved from the restraint caused by our 
presence."* 

In spite, however, of the exertions made by 
Dr. Parr and many others, little more than the 
name of " May-day" remains, and the legendary 
interest which once attached to the Hawthorn 
has faded, in like manner. Yet, after all, perhaps, 
we ought not to regret this ; for the religious 
legends afforded, at the best, an unprofitable sub- 
ject for speculation, and tended rather to lead 
away the mind from the Creator to the creature 
than to stimulate true piety : and the morning's 
merriment on May-day was but too frequently 
the forerunner of rioting and dissipation in the 
evening. In the minds of those who look aright 
on the works of Nature, more real devotion and 
a greater amount of pleasurable feeling will be 
excited by the fragrance, symmetry, colouring, 
and freshness of a Hawthorn wreath, than could 
be produced by the most plausible monkish tradi- 

* The doctor is said to have kept the large crown of the Ma^'-pole 
in a closet of his house, from whence it was produced every May- 
day, with fresh flowers and streamers, preparatory to its elevation, 
and to the doctor's appearance in the ring. 



196 



THE HAWTHORN. 



tioii. or the merriest rustic dance. Let us hope 
that the love of flowers, now so widely diffused, 
is based on wiser and better motives. Tlie poet 
who sang as follows, no doubt sang too truly of 
the indifference of mankind to the religious im- 
pressions which the wonders of the vegetable 
world are so well calculated to convey. Let us 
strive to render our hearts more susceptible. 

" Where does the wisdom and the power Divine 
In a more bright and sweet reflection shine ? 
Where do we finer strokes and colours see 
Of the Creator's real poetry, 
Than when we with attention look 
Upon the third day's volume of the book ? 
If we could open and intend our eye, 
We all, like Moses, should esp}- 
Ev'n in a bush the radiant Deity. 
But we despise these his inferior ways 
(Though no less full of miracle and praise) : 
Upon the flowers of heaven we gaze ; 
The stars of earth no wonder in us raise, 
Though these perhaps do, more than they, 
The life of mankind sway." Cowley. 

Stript, as we have seen, of legendary interest 
as the Hawthorn no^^' is, and deprived of its 
high privilege of crowning the Queen of ^lay, it 
is, nevertheless, still a favourite vrith all. Not, 
as I have before said, that it has great preten- 
sions to elegance of form or picturesque beauty ; 
but it possesses qualities which, I may almost 
say, engage our affections. It is the tutelary 
guardian of our fields, our orchards, and our gar- 
dens ; and seems to thrive best, and loves to grow 
near the rural habitations of men. When the 
cottager sets about enclosing his bit of garden- ^ 
ground, the Hawthorn is ready to cro^^Ti his ^ 
lowly fence with its protecting and closely woven 



THE HAWTHORN. 



197 



boughs^ vv'hich, with their thickset prickles^ form 
an ahnost impenetrable barrier round the little 
domain. When arrived at maturity, its stoutest 
branches are often hacked unmercifully, nearly 
through their whole dimensions, and forcibly fixed 
in a direction contrary to their natural growth ; 
yet the lacerated limbs, regardless of this rude 
treatment, send forth their shoots as vigorously as 
ever, and accommodate themselves to the humour 
or convenience of the planter, with all the fidelity 
of a spaniel. The Hawthorn may be considered, 
indeed, a domesticated tree, that readily adapts 
itself to the wishes and wants of man, rec[uiring 
little care or attention during any period of its 
growth. Nor are these all its services ; every 
plant that grows near it seems to acquire in- 
creased vigour from its friendly shelter and vici- 
nity. The snowdrop, fearless of the tempest, 
displays its earliest flowers amid the thick covert 
of the Hawthorn ; while the primrose, the violet, 
and the speedwell are generally its beautiful as- 
sociates. 

Deprived of its Hawthorn hedges, our rural 
scenery would lose one of its most interesting 
features, and present to the eye of the painter 
and. the poet little more than a tame and mono- 
tonous expanse of country. Xot only do they 
agreeably diversify our immediate vicinities, but 
when blended by distance give a rich and unri- 
valled charm to English landscape. 

The Hawthorn is also one of the earliest har- 
bingers of summer. AVhat can surpass the beau- 
tiful and delicate green of its first unfolding 
leaves ? After surveying from our windows the 
monotonous and dingy prospect of a long succes- 



198 



THE HAWTHORN. 



sioii of house-tops and chimneys, how refreshing 
is it to turn our eyes to the green symbol of 
spring, which tells us that Nature, in her own 
lovely domain, is quietly preparing her robe of 
summer beauty ! In the balmy month of May, 
the Hawthorn has no rival. It may then be 
said to live in an atmosphere of its own fragrance, ' 
the whole country being filled with its delicious - 
odour. It has never been my lot to scent the 
aromatic breezes which are said to float thi'ough 
the air for a distance of many miles from the 
shores of Ceylon; but I can scarcely think thatr 
they are more grateful in themselves, or con- 
nected with more delightful associations, than 
the Hawthorn perfume of an English spring, or, 
I may add, the summer perfume of an English 
hay -field. And as to its wreaths of snowy blos-[' 
soms, I know nothing more beautiful — some ^\ith * 
their blossoms fully expanded, dotted with their ! 
delicate pink stamens — others, as yet unfolded J' 
resembling little globes of silver set in pedestals 
of emerald. India may boast of more gorgeous 
flowers, but surely of nothing more elegant and 
graceful. 

" When first the tender blades of grass appear, 
And buds, that yet the blast of Eurus fear, 

Stand at the door of life, and doubt to clothe the year, * 
Till gentle heat, and soft repeated rains. 
Make the green blood to dance within their veins : 
Then, at their call, emboldened out they come. 
And swell the gems, and burst their narrow room ; 
Broader and broader yet, their leaves displa}", r 
Salute the welcome sun, and entertain the day. 
Then from their breathing souls the sweets repair 
To scent the skies, and purge th' unwholesome air : 
Joy spreads the heart, and, with a general song. 
Spring issues out, and leads the jolly months along." 

Dryden. 



THE HAWTHORN. 



199 



In spring and summer the Hawthorn breathes 
the very soul of rustic poetry ; its rich profusion 
of crimson berries contributes largely to the 
glorious colouring of autumn, and scarcely less 
to relieve the dreary sameness of winter. 

Gilpin, I regret to add, scarcely allows the 
Hawthorn any claim to be considered an orna- 
ment to the landscape. The Hawthorn," he 
says, should not entirely be passed over amidst 
the minuter plants of the forest, though it has 
little claim to picturesque beauty. In song, in- 
deed, the shepherd may with propriety, 

' tell his tale 
Under the Hawthorn in the dale : ' 

but when the scenes of Nature are presented to 
the eye, it is but a poor appendage. Its shape 
is bad ; it does not taper and point like the 
Holly, but is rather a matted, round, heavy bush. 
Its fragrance, indeed, is great ; but its bloom, 
which is the source of that fragrance, is spread 
over it in too much profusion. It becomes a 
mere white sheet — a bright spot, which is seldom 
found in harmony with the objects around it. In 
autumn the Hawthorn makes its best appearance. 
Its glowing berries produce a rich tint, which 
often adds great beauty to the corner of a wood, 
or the side of some crowded clump." 

Now, although the author in this passage pro- 
fessedly speaks of the Hawthorn as forming a 
part of a scene of Nature presented to the eye," 
it is clear that he is in reality thinking of it 
as an ingredient in a painted landscape, and 
here, it must be confessed, it is not entitled to 
a prominent place when in full bloom. No 
painter would admit a mass of glaring white — 



200 



THE HAWTHORN. 



whether a patch of snow, a white-washed cottage, 
or a bush covered with blossom — into the fore- 
ground of a picture : either of these would be 
unsightly in itself, and would draw the eye of 
the spectator too much away from the more 
important features of the landscape ; but in 
living nature it rarely produces this effect. Sir 
T. D. Lauder, who dissents from the opinion 
expressed by Gilpin, thinks that the Hawthorn, 




CO.\[3I0X HAWTHORN. 

even in a picturesque point of view, is not only 
an interesting object by itself, but produces a 
most interesting combination, or contrast, as things 
may be, when grouped with other trees. 



THE HAWTHORN. 



201 



We have seen it hanging over rocks, with 
deep shadows under its foliage, or shooting from 
their sides, in the most fantastic forms, as if 
to gaze at its image in the deep pool below. 
We have seen it contrasting its tender germ, 
and its delicate leaves, with the brighter and 
deeper masses of the Holly and the Alder. We 
have seen it growing under the shelter, though 
not the shade, of some stately Oak, embodying 
the idea of beauty protected by strength. Our 
eyes have often caught the m.otion of the busy 
mill-wheel, over which its blossoms were cluster- 
ing. We have seen it growing grandly on the 
green of the village school, the great object of 
general attraction to the young urchins, who 
played in idle groups about its roots, and perhaps 
the only thing remaining to be recognized when 
the school-boy returns as the man. We have 
seen its aged boughs overshadowing one half of 
some peaceful woodland cottage, its foliage half 
concealing the window, whence the sounds of 
happy content and cheerful mirth came forth. 

We know that lively season, 

' When the milkmaid singeth blythe, 
And the mower whets his scythe, 
And every shepherd tells his tale 
Under the Hawthorn in the dale.' 

And with these, and a thousand such associa- 
tions as these, we cannot but feel emotions of 
no ordinary nature when we behold this beautiful 
tree." 

In another place Gilpin speaks more favourably 
of the tree in question: Though as a single 
bush it is sometimes offensive, yet, entangled with 
an Oak, or mixing with other trees, it may be 



202 



THE HAWTHORN. 



beautiful." Price, in iiis admirable Essay on the 
Picturesque, expresses the same opinion : " Should 
it happen, for example, that in parts of the rising 
ground of a highly dressed lawn, groups of Tlioriis 
and Hollies were mixed with the Oaks and Beeches, 
is there any one, with the least taste for natural 
beauties, who vrould totally extirpate them, and 
clear round all the larger trees ? Is there any 
one who would not delight in such a mixture ?" 

If the artist, however, still refuse to admit it 
into his painted landscape, we must be content to 
admire it as it stands in the landscape of Nature 
— to enjoy its rich perfume — to contrast its bright 
green leaves with its ivory flowers — to inspect its 
minute beauties — to thank it for the hospitable 
shelter that it affords to the nightingale in sum- 
mer, and the welcome repast to many a feathered 
songster in winter, at which season the robin-red- 
breast selects its topmost twig from which to pour 
forth his plaintive yet cheering song^ — and to rest 
satisfied, that, although it has found no painter to 
eulogize it, it has never wanted a poet. 

Amongst the many buds proclaiming May, 

Decking the fields in holiday array, 

Striving who shall surpass in braverie, 

Marke the faire blooming of the Hawthorne tree, 

Who finely cloathed in a robe of white, 

Fills full the vranton eye with May's delight." 

Chaucer. 

" Gives not the Hawthorn-bush a sweeier shade 
To shepherds looking on their silly sheep, 
Than doth a rich embroidered canop}^ 
To kings that fear their subjects' treachery?" 

Shakspeare. 

" Come, my Corinna, come, and coming, mark 
How each field turns a street, each street a park 
Made green and trimmed with trees ; see how 
Devotion gives each house a bough 



THE HAWTHORX. 



203 



Or brarich : each porch, each door, ere this. 

An ark. a taberriacle is ; 

Made up of Whitethorn neatly interwove." 

Herrick. 

" From the moist meadow to the wither'd hill, 
Led OT the breeze, the vivid verdure runs. 
And swells, ana deepens, to the cherish'd eye. 
The Hawthorn whitens ; and the juicy groves 
Put lortli their buds, unfolding by degrees. 
Till the whole leafy forest stands display'd 
In full luxuriance to the sighina' Q-ales."' 

Thomson. 

" The Hawthorn-bush, with seats beneath the shade 
For talking age and whispering lovers made.'" 

Goldsmith. 

" From the Whitethorn the May-flower shed 
Its dewy fragrance round our head." 

Scott. 

" The Gorse is yellow on the heath, 
The banks vriih Speedwell floAvers are gay ; 
The Oak is budding, and beneath, 
The Hawthorn soon shall wear the wreath. 
The silver wreath of May.'"' 

Charlotte S^iith. 



The milk-white Thorn that scents the evening gale." 

Burns. 

" Yon reverend Hawthorns, hardened to the rod 
Of winter storms, yet budding cheerfully."' 

Wordsworth. 

The Hawthorn, according to some etymologists, 
is so called from its fruit, or haic .\ot, if Booth 
be correct, the tree gives the name to the fruit ; 
the first syllable of the word being a corruption 
of hage, or IicFg, and the Avord itself signifies a 
hedge-flwr/h^ Crataegus and Oxyacanfha, to 

* Scott, in his Discovery of Witc/icraft, calls it Hay-thorn.*" 
Cratsegus is from the Greek y.ociro:^ strengtJi : Oxyacantha signities 
sliarp-tliorn ; Pyracantha,yz€rj/-//20/"/2. 



204 



THE HAWTHORN. 



which may be added Pyracantha, are the names 
by which the Greeks are supposed to have desig- 




HAWTHORN BLOSSOM. 



nated the tree. By the Romans it appears to have 
been called Spina, Its French name, Auhe- 
epine, refers to its flowering early in the spring, 
or morning, of the year ; auhe signifying " the 
dawn of day." With us it is known indifferently 
by the names, May-tree, May-bush, from its 
season of flowering, and from the important place 
which it held in the old May games ; Quickthorn, 
Quickset, and simply Quick, from its application 
to the construction of quick, or live hedges, in- 
stead of dead branches of trees ; and Whitethorn, 
from the profusion of its white flowers. By 
some botanists it is placed in the same genus with 
Mespilus the Medlar, with which it has many 
botanical characters in common. 



THE HA^yTHOR^^ 



205 



It is found in most parts of Europe, from 
the Mediterranean to as far north as 60i°, in 




FRUIT OF HAWTHORN. XATLTR-AL SIZE, 



Sweden ; in tlie north of Africa, and in western 
Asia. It was introduced many years since into 
Australia, where it grows as luxuriantly as 
in its native country, and where it must have 
no little efficacy in keeping alive the memory 
of the shady lanes and village gTeens of Old 
England. 

It would be superfluous for me to give a de- 
tailed description of a tree with which every one 
is so familiar as the Hawthorn. I will therefore 
simply make a few remarks on its mode of growth 
and other peculiarities, which I will leave to my 
readers to verify at their leisure. 

In size, mode of growth, foliage, colour, and 
even odour of its flowers, the Hawthorn is per- 



206 



THE HAWTHORN. 



haps more liable to variation than any other tree. 
Some exhibit a strong, free, and upright growth, 
being furnished with large and luxurious foliage, 
and but few spines ; others, on the contrary, 
assume the character of stunted, prickly, bushes, 
with numerous small, and deeply cut leaves. Not 
unfrequently, from having been cut down to the 
ground in an early stage of their growth, nume- 
rous suckers rise from the same root, which, in 
after years, as they increase in bulk, become par- 
tially united at their bases, and have the appear- 
ance of a trunk dividing itself into many branches. 
Jesse, in his Gleanings of Natural History^ men- 
tions some trees of this description, each of 
which he supposes to have consisted originally 
of one main trunk, which from the eifects of age 
had separated itself into a number of smaller 
stems. 

While on the subject of trees," he says, 
" I will notice the present state of the old 
Thorns in Bushy Park, from which it probably 
takes its name. These trees are generally sup- 
posed to have been in existence at the time of 
Oliver Cromwell, the park being then used as a 
hare park. As they increase in age, they have 
the property of separating themselves into differ- 
ent stems, some having four or five, or even six, 
which, as they separate, become regularly barked 
round, forming, to appearance, so many distinct 
trees closely planted together, except that they 
all meet at the butt of the tree. Some of the 
trees are now undergoing this process of separa- 
tion, having already thrown out one stem, while 
in other parts they are deeply indented with 
seams down the whole stem. These, grjadually 



THE HAWTHORN. 



207 



deepening from opposite sides tovrards the cen- 
tre, will at last split the tree into a number 
of separate stems, Avhich are barked roimd. In 
other trees the seam is hardly visible^ though 
none of them are without it. This peculiarity 
seems confined to the Thorn, and as 1 have not 
observed it in those which appear to have been 
more recently planted^ it is probably the effect 
of great age, though the trees are still flourish- 
ing, and I knoAv of few sights more beautiful 
tiian the fine old Thorns in Bushy Park in full 
blossom." 

Xow, I am inclined to think that, although this 
description of the Thorns is, no doubt, perfectly 
correct, the supposition on which Mr. Jesse ac- 
counts for the separate stems is not equally so. 
The easiest and simplest proof would be to cut 
down one of the stems, and to observe whether 
the wood is arranged in concentric circles^ having 
the pith for a common centre, or, v\-liether the 
layers of wood are broken into irregular segments 
of circles^ without any common centre. If each 
stem be found to have a distinct central cokmm 
of pith, with the wood deposited in layers around 
it i which, I apprehend will turn out to be the 
case;, it must have been a separate stem from the 
beginning of its existence ; for there is never 
more than one colmnn of pith in the same trunk, 
and that one was fully formed during the first 
year's growth, and has never since increased in 
size. In the latter case only, therefore, can his 
theory be well founded. Certainly, in some very 
old trees at Xewliam and Pem^ose, near Helston, 
Cornwall, the appearance of which closely re- 
sembles those which he describes, the trees ori- 



208 



THE HAWTHORN. 



ginally consisted of a number of stems which have 
grown together."^' The true explanation I believe 
to be this. The Hawthorn, when cut dow^n close 
to the ground, invariably sends up several strong 
shoots from the buds nearest to the root, Vv'hich 
from their having no room to expand, have a 
natural tendency as they increase in size to grow 
together* When once thus united, the lower 
portion of the consolidated trunk w^ould pre- 
sent the " seamed " appearance described by Mr, 
Jesse, and as the tree grew old, the increased 
weight of branches, foliage, and fruit would have 
the effect of separating the whole into its con- 
stituent parts, or, in fact, restoring it to its 
former condition. This tendency of the Haw^- 
thorn to form numerous separate stems is so 
well known to hedgers, that it is usual to cut 
down whole hedges of quickset, as soon as the 
plants are well rooted, for the sake of forming a 
thicker fence. 

Occasionally, but rarely, the Hawthorn asumes 
a pendant or weeping " character. There is 
a fine tree of this kind in the garden which be- 
longed to the Regent Murray in Scotland, and 
is said to be very beautiful. Like many other 
trees, the Hawthorn is occasionally liable to an 
unhealthy mode of growth, when tufts or clusters 
of twigs are produced, resembling, if observed at 
a little distance, a large bird's nest. Mr. Ander- 
son, the late curator of the Chelsea Botanic Gar- 
den, had the curiosity to graft young Thorns with 

* Grigor, in his Eastern Arboretum, describes a similar tree at 
Earsham, Norfolk, " the trunk of which was a series of stems massed 
and matted together, measuring, at five feet from the ground, nine 
feet in circumference." 



THE HAWTHORN. 



209 



some of these twigs, and found, in the course of 
two or three years, that they produced beautiful 
weeping branches.* 

It has already been said that the varieties of 
the Hawthorn are very numerous, and no less 
strongly marked. Difference of soil and situation 
produces yet more remarkable contrasts. A bushy 
tree in the rich lowlands, it becomes gnarled, rag- 
ged, and fantastic in form, as it creeps up the 
mountains, and finally dwindles into a mere stunt- 
ed and knotted shrub. 

" There is a Thorn — it looks so old — 

In truth you 'd find it hard to say ^ 
How it could ever have been young, 

It looks so old and grey. 
Not higher than a two years' child. 

It stands erect, this aged Thorn ; 
No leaves it has, no prickly points ; 
It is a mass of knotted joints, 

A wretched thing forlorn. 
It stands erect, and like a stone 
With lichens it is overgrown. 

Like rock or stone, it is overgrown 

With lichens to the very top, 
And hung with heavy tufts of moss, 

A melancholy crop : 
Up from the earth these mosses creep. 

And this poor Thorn they clasp it round, 
So close, you 'd say that they are bent, 
With plain and manifest intent, 

To drag it to the ground ; 
And all have joined in one endeavour, 
To bury this poor Thorn for ever." 

Wordsworth. 

It is difficult to imagine that this Thorn so 
old and grey," had it stood on the village-green 
beneath, might have found a place in the same 

* Similar results followed from budding, or grafting, from the tufts 
produced by the Elm (Ulmus campestris), 

P 



210 



THE HAWTHORN. 



poef's song as the tree under whose shade 

" shepherds sate of yore and wove 
Mav-garlands." 

The spines^ or thorns, which form a characteris- 
tic feature of this tree, are to "be distinguished 
from prickles^ such as those wliich invest the stems 
of the rose or bramhle. The latter are attached 
only to the surface of the stem, and even to that 
sometimes not very firmly. Thorns, however, are 
to be considered as imperfect branches, being fur- 
nished with proper bark, wood, and pith of their 
own. They enlarge in the second year of their 
grovrth, and for the most part produce buds and 
leaves, and eventually flovrers and fruit : whereas 
prickles never increase in size after the first year, 
and are not converted into branches. 

Xot even is the colour of the blossom which 
gives the name ^' AVhite-thorn" free from varia- 
tions. Indeed, most commonly, it assumes a 
pink hue in fading ; but in gardens and shrub- 
beries, varieties are frequent in which the flower 
is of a permanent and decided pink or crimson. 
The perfume of the blossom is generally exceed- 
ingly fragrant : but occasionally this fragrance 
is ahnost overpowered by a strong fishy smell, 
which is most perceptible when the branch is 
held close to the nose, or carried into a close 
room. The haw. too, varies greatly in size, 
shape, and colour, being sometimes oblong, some- 
times nearly globular ; sometimes downy, at other 
times smooth and polished. Varieties have been 
observed in which it exchanges its usual crimson 
hue for black, orange, golden yellow, or white. 
Ill the AVest of England, and probably most 
other parts of the country, each haw contains a 



THE HAWTHORN. 



211 



single nut : but in the neighbourhood of Barnet 
and Hadley, in Hertfordshire^ I have observed 
that they more frequently contain two. 

The pink and double varieties of Hawthorn 
are multiplied by grafting and buddings but the 
common sort is generally raised from seed. The 
haws are gathered in winter and laid in a heap, 
mixed with a sufficient quantity of soil to cover 
them and separate them from each other, and 
exposed to the influence of the weather, until 
the spring of the second, or even the third en- 
suing year. Unless this plan is adopted, the 
young plants do not appear till the year after 
they are sown, and consequently occasion the 
loss of the ground for that time. Various expe- 
riments have been tried with the seed, in the 
hope of finding some method of securing their 
growth in the year following that of their being 
gathered, but none have succeeded. The extreme 
hardness and durability of the shell is the pro- 
bable cause of this sluggishness of growth. Could 
any plan be devised for breaking the shell without 
injuring the kernel, it is not unlikely that the 
desired object would be effected. 

I have already spoken of the claims of the 
Hawthorn to picturesque beauty. Whether they 
are' allowed or not, there can be no doubt that not 
only the several varieties of the British tree, but 
many foreign species, are eminently ornamental 
to the lawn a*nd shrubbery. 

In husbandry, the principal use of the Quick- 
thorn is for making hedges, for which purpose 
very many thousands are annually raised in 
Britain, an employment which forms an impor- 
tant branch of the business of nursery-men. 



212 



THE HAWTHORN. 



This raising of Thorns for profit is a comparative- 
ly modern occupation. Evelyn being the first to 
tell us of a gentleman who had considerably 
improved his revenue by sowina' Haws only, and 
raising nurseries of Quicksets, which he sells by 
the hundred far and near/' In the first year 
of their growth, the seedlings attain the height 
of from six to twelve inches, and during the 
two or three following years increase at the 
amimal rate of from one foot to three feet : after- 
wards they grovr more slowly till they have 
attained the height of from twelve to fifteen feet, 
when the shoots are produced principally in a 
lateral direction. This peculiarity, added to the 
rigidity of its thorns, makes it so valuable for 
the purpose above-mentioned, the denseness of 
its side-branches being greatly promoted by fre- 
quent prunings of the upward shoots. In order 
to ensure an uniformly dense hedge, the best phm 
is to plant three or four-years-old trees in two 
rows, about a foot or a foot and a half apart, and 
in the following season to cut them down with- 
in an inch or two of the ground. If kept clear of 
weeds, they will make numerous strong shoots 
during the succeeding year, and soon form an 
impenetrable barrier. Hedges of this tree will 
stand the :?ca-breeze better than most others ; 
but still are far from being uninjured by their 
rude visitor, for 

Where from sea-blasts the Hawthorns lean, 
And hoary dews are slow to melt," 

the side most exposed to the weather may fre- 
quently be observed rounded ofi' as neatly as if by 
the gardener's shears. This efiect is produced by 



THE HAWTHORN. 



213 



the particles of salt with which the sea-breeze is 
charged being arrested by the twigs and killing 
the 3'oung buds : but the opposite side flourishes 
with tolerable luxuriance.* 

Thorns are occasionally liable to attacks from a 
fungus {(Ecidium laceratum) which produces sin- 
gular brown swellings on the young shoots and 
leaves. Their most usual shape is oval^ and in 
size they vary from that of a bean to that of a 
walnut. On the outside they are smooth^ but 
internally contain a large quantity of brown pow- 
der, which rises in a cloud when the hedge is 
shaken. Young plants are also liable in damp 
seasons to a destructive mildew, as a remedy 
against which strong stimulating manures are 
reconmiended, and the application of soot. 

The stock of the Thorn is employed not only 
for grafting varieties of its own species, but also, 
and with great advantage, for several of the garden 
fruits. 

Man does the savage Hav/thorn teach 

To bear the Medlar and the Pear ; 

He bids the rustic Pkim to rear 

A noble trunk and be a Peach." Cowley. 



* Some few years ago, a gardener, accustomed only to the mid- 
land counties, was engaged by a gentleman, whose estate lies on 
the northern sea-coast of Devonshire, to superintend his garden and 
plantations. On his arrival he was sent his employer to walk 
through his domain, that he might gain some notion of what would be 
required of him. His inspection being completed, he was asked 
what he thought of his new employment: " I like the place well," he 
replied, " and doubt not that I should be able to give satisfaction, 
except on one point. How my predecessor contrived to keep the 
Thorn -hedges so neatly clipped with only four hands to help him, I 
cannot tell, nor can I undertake to do as well : I must therefore de- 
cline the situation." He was not a little surprised on being told 
that the north-west wind was his "predecessor," a coadjutor whose 
services he probably afterwards found verging on the officious. 



214 



THE HAWTHORN. 



The leaves^ like those of the Beech and some 
other trees^ are invested with a short downy 
covering while young, which afterwards almost 
entirely disappears, leaving a bright and glossy 
surface. They are said to be used not unfre- 
quently for the purpose of adulterating tea ; and 
indeed, not many years since, a patent was taken 
out for preparing them as a substitute for the 
more costly leaf ; cattle will browse on them, 
not forgetting to pay due regard to the sharp 
spines with which the younger branches are plen- 
tifully armed. 

Most of my readers will, I doubt not, be able 
to recall a period of their lives when a twig of 
Hawthorn, just coming into bud, straight and 
smooth, and furnished with a regular array of un- 
mutilated spines, contributed not a little to the 
innocent enjopnent of childhood. AVith a daisy, 
chosen from among a thousand for its petals 
deeply tinged with crimson — many times thrown 
away to give place to another yet more beautiful 
— and a half-open buttercup, stuck on alternate 
thorns — who so happy as we were then ! ^^^len 
have we been so happy since ? Never, perhaps, 
except when we have stolen away from the 
world and thoughts of the world, and bui'ying 
ourselves in the depths of a forest, have dis- 
covered, in the solemn and mute aspirations of 
created Nature, intimations of the spring of 
an Eternity. Never man spake as He did who 
bade us look to children for our first and most 
perfect lessons in Christian philosophy : it can- 
not, therefore, be unattended with profit to 
ourselves, if, in mature age, we can now and 
then catch but a transient impression of the 



THE HAWTHORN. 



215 



feelings which thronged upon our life in child- 
hood — 

" The time when meadow, grove, and stream, 
The earth, and every common sight, 

To us did seem 
Apparelled in celestial light, — 
The glory and the freshness of a dream." 

I may here observe that the larger spines of the 
Hawthorn may be applied^ as in some places they 
are, to a use which ought to be generally known. 
Poor children in the neighbourhood of towns 
might be taught to prepare them for the purpose, 
and almost to gain themselves a livelihood. I 
shall probably raise a smile when I add that a 
small amount of labour will convert them into ex- 
cellent skewers for purposes to which pins are 
more frequently applied. 

Thorns should be selected about two or three 
inches in length, as free from knots as possible, 
and boiled in water for a few minutes. The 
rind may then be easily removed from, every part 
of them but the point, and they require no 
further preparation before they are fit for use. 
Poor children, having first received permission 
(which scarcely any one would refuse) from the 
owners of Thorn hedges, might thus be put in 
the way of benefiting themselves without doing 
injury to any one. Threepence or fourpence 
a hundred would be a remunerating price to 
them ; and one which any one would prefer 
to pay rather than run the risk of inadvertently 
swallowing a pin. The thorns may readily 
be slipped from the branch without the aid of a 
knife ; but whoever tries the experiment should 
provide the child with a common knife to assist in 



216 THE HAWTHORN. 

removing the rind^ and a sheet of fine sand paper 
to remove inequalities in the surface.* 

ith the exception that a strong fermented 
liquor may be made from hav^'s, neither the blos- 




THE HAW-FIXCK. 

som nor the fruit has been applied to any impor- 
tant use by man : but the flowers as well as the 
leaves afford sustenance to a variety of insects : and 
the haws, which are followed, as to the time of 
ripenmg, by the berries of the Ivy, and those again 
by the berries of the Mistletoe, produce an abun- 
dant supply of food to the feathered tribe during 

* I am indebted for this idea to a letter in the Gardeners* Ma- 
gazine, rii. 234, by the Rev. T. W. Bree. 



THE HAWTHORN, 



217 



the severest and most protracted of our winters. 
One bird of passage, the Haw -finch, only remains 
wdth US during the months when its favourite food, 
from which it derives its name, is to be procured, 
coming in autumn and departing in the month of 
April. It has been suggested that pigs might be 
fed with haws during seasons of scarcity. 

The Hawthorn attains a great age, and, when 
large enough to rank among timber-trees, is of 
considerable value. According to Evelyn, ^' The 
root of an old Thorn is excellent both for 
boxes and combs, and is curiously and naturally 
wrought : I have read that they make ribs to 
some small boats or vessels with the White 
Thorn; and it is certain, that if they were planted 
single, and in standards, where they might be safe, 
they would rise into large bodied trees in time, 
and be of excellent use for the turner, not inferior 
to Box." Loudon says, Its wood is very hard and 
difficult to work : its colour is white, but with a 
yellowish tinge ; its grain is fine, and it takes a 
beautiful polish ; but it is not much used in the 
arts, because it is seldom found of sufficient size, 
and is besides apt to warp. It weighs, when 
green, sixty-eight pounds twelve ounces per cubic 
foot; and when dry, fifty-seven pounds five ounces. 
It contracts, by drying, one-eighth of its bulk. 
It is employed for the handles of hammers, the 
teeth of mill-wheels, for flails and mallets, and, 
when heated at the fire, for canes and walking- 
sticks. The branches are used in the country for 
heating ovens ; a purpose for which they are very 
proper, as they give out much heat, and, like the 
Ash and Furze, possess the property of burning 
as readily when green as in their dry state." 



218 



THE HAWTHORN. 



It lias also been stated that it miglit be sub- 
stituted for Box-wood as a material for wood- 
engraving, in case of any deficiency in the supply 
of the preferable, but more costly wood. It is 
often spoiled through inattention after cutting ; 
if it be allowed to lie in entire logs or trunks, 
it soon heats and becomes quite brittle and 
worthless ; it ought, therefore, to be cut up 
immediately into planks, and laid to dry. 

Remarkable trees of this species are — one men- 
tioned by Jesse, in Dulham Park, Suffolk, which 
is well worthy of notice, from its great size, anti- 
quity, and the curious manner in which it grows ; 
one at Kinkarochie, in the parish of Scone, in 
Perthshire, which in 1795 measured nine feet in 
circumference ; another at Duddingstone, in the 
county of Edinbui^gh, which measures nine feet 
at three feet above the ground, and a little way 
above the roots, twelve feet round. The last two 
are mentioned by Sir T. D. Lauder. 

But the most remarkable tree, next to the 
Glastonbury Thorn already noticed, is the Hethel 
Thorn, of which the folloAving account is given by 
Grigor in his Eastern Arboretum, 

^' It stands in a field adjoining the church, the 
property of Hudson Gurney, Esq., and though 
it still greets the May -morn with its profuse and 
odoriferous blossoms, and bears' a T)lentiful crop 
of fruit like the others, it is invested with a 
character differing materially from that of the 
species in general, arising from its extreme old 
age. In looking upon it, one would sujDpose it 
had been here for thousands of years : and, in- 
deed, if the common tradition of the place is to 
be relied upon, it must be acknowledged to be. 



THE HAWTHORN. 



221 



in a high degree, patriarchal. Participating in the 
general interest felt with reference to this object, 
we deemed it advisable to apply for information 
regarding it to the proprietor, to whom we are 
indebted for the following remarks, w^hich we 
take the liberty of here introducing : — As to the 
Hethel Thorn, ^ I wish,' he says, ^my story were 
a clearer one, and should be very glad if autho- 
rities and traditions could be better collected. I 
have heard that the first Sir Thomas Beevor said, 
that he was in possession of a deed bearing date 
early in the thirteenth century, in which, refer- 
ring to it as a boundary tree, it is mentioned as 
the Old Thorn. But I have innumerable deeds 
from the court-rolls of the manor of Hethel, but 
none of them earlier than the time of Edward 
III., and amongst them I can find no such men- 
tion. If, therefore. Sir Thomas had such deed, 
he must have taken it out, and kept it as a curi- 
osity. I have also heard that in one of the 
chronicles the Thorn was mentioned as the mark 
for meeting, in an insurrection of the peasants in 
the reign of King John ; but I have never been 
able to get a reference to what chronicle. The 
first Sir Thomas Beevor put a rail round it, and 
took great care of it. After the present Sir 
Thomas Beevor left Hethel, it was much ne- 
glected : and pieces of it, I am told, were pulled 
down by the cottagers. I replaced the railing, 
and had some of the branches, which had been 
supported by crooks by Sir Thomas, again so 
propped. Not only the bark of the hollow tree 
is as hard and as heavy as iron, but every branch, 
most curiously inter-involved, is a hollow tube, 
into which you may put your arm, all the interior 



222 



THE HAWTHORN. 



wood being gone. It still puts forth blossoms 
and haws everywhere yearly, but I think during 
later years it has been sensibly going off, and is 
not the tree it was even five years ago.' 

^' Subsequently to our receiving this informa- 
tion, we spent part of a day amongst the villagers 
of Hethel, for the purpose of collecting any tra- 
ditions that might be retained regarding this tree ; 
but we had the satisfaction only to know that 
what is embodied in the foregoing statement is 
all that we could learn from them regarding it. 
The older inhabitants with whom we conversed, 
some of them nearly ninety years old, ascribe to 
it an extraordinary age, and consider it, very 
justly, we think, to have been the glory of all 
the Thorns in the neighbourhood for many cen- 
turies. 

This, however, is saying but little ; for its 
very appearance justifies us in allotting to it an 
age of more than five centuries, whilst its size as 
a Thorn is remarkable. Our measurement of it 
stands as follows : — at one foot from the base of 
the trunk, twelve feet one inch in circumference, 
and at five feet high, fourteen feet three inches ; 
whilst the circumference of the space over which 
the branches spread is thirty-one yards. Its trunk 
is reduced to a mere shell, and though somewhat 
divided, it has none of that shattered appearance 
which we sometimes observe in the Oak. The 
ramification of the top had assumed a style which 
we can neither trace in the Oak, nor in any trees 
of its own species, the branches forming a thick ' 
grotesque mass most curiously interwoven. It is 
covered all over with lichen, and crowned with 
mistletoe, adding still more to the effect which 



THE HAWTHORN. 



223 



age confers upon such objects. Whether by ac- 
cident or otherwise, we know not, but it appears 
to have lost several boughs of late years, so that 
it is not nearly of such a large size, as a spreading 
tree, as it was even ten years ago. The boys of 
the village, too, are in the habit of going a-May- 
ing to the ^ Old Thorn,' and robbing it of large 
bunches of spray every season, a practice which, 
as to this particular tree, should be at once dis- 
continued. It appears that Mr. Marsham, in a 
communication to the Bath Society, nearly a 
century since, noticed this Thorn as a remark- 
able tree, and stated its measurement at four 
feet from the ground to be nine feet one inch ; re- 
marking also, that one of its arms extended above 
seven yards. Whatever then may be the correct 
age of this tree, it is unquestionably the most 
interesting specimen in the east of England, and 
fairly entitled, we think, to rank amongst the 
most celebrated in our country." 

Through the kindness of the Rev. J. H. 
Steward, I am enabled to give the following ad- 
ditional particulars respecting the present state 
of the tree. 

The present proprietor of the field in which 
the Thorn stands (who purchased the property of 
the present Sir Thomas Beevor) is an antiquary, 
and I have no doubt has ascertained all that can 
be ascertained of the traditionary history of the 
tree. In Mr. Grigor's book there is an etching, 
which gives very nearly the present appearance 
of the Thorn. I have to-day had the tree mea- 
sured, and at four feet from the ground, its girth 
is twelve feet five inches ; this excess over the 
girth given in Loudon appears to have been occa- 



224 



THE HAWTHORN. 



sioned by the splitting and giving way of the 
trunk, and not by growth. Loudon, quoting 
Marsham, says, ^ One arm of it extending above 
seven yards : ' — there is now a branch which ex- 
tends six yards. At five feet from the ground 
the girth is sixteen feet three inches, an excess 
beyond Grigor's measurement to be accounted for 
as above stated. At one foot from the ground, 
it is tw^elve feet two inches. — The present circum- 
ference of the branches is thirty-one yards ; the 
longest diameter of them, ten yards and tw^o feet, 
and the height about eighteen feet." 

Grigor also mentions another interesting Thorn, 
which stands in the churchyard of St. Michael's 
at Thorn, Norwich, and which bears the marks 
of great antiquity. Though situated in a thickly 
populous district of the city, blackened with 
dust, it is found every year at its appointed time 
mantled with sweet May. It has undergone little 
alteration in appearance during the last half-cen- 
tury ; and, as some kind hand has placed a hoop 
of iron round its shattered stem, it bids fair to 
withstand the inroads of time for many years to 
come. 

In the mountainous parts of Derbyshire, called 
Woodlands, stands a Hawthorn which affords a 
curious instance of the provision made by Nature 
for the support of a decayed tree. It once had a 
large and stout trunk, but at the time when it 
was observed was quite hollow^, both wood and 
bark being decayed and lifeless ; but the foliage 
was supported in full vigour by a root about 
three inches in diameter, which had descended 
through the hollow and performed the functions 
of a stem. 



Q 



THE HAWTHORN. 



227 



The following account of a remarkable Thorn 
in the north of Ireland, together with the annexed 
sketch, was supplied by Alexander Johns, Esq. : — 
On the estate of M. Dalway, Esq., at Bella 
Hill, county of Antrim, stands the ^ Witch Thorn,' 
but I have not been able to trace why so called, 
nor to collect any legends respecting it. The 
schoolmaster of the Witch Thorn National School 
(the tree has given its name to the place), referred 
me to an old man named James Poag, residing 
about a quarter of a mile from the spot. I found 
him at home, but gained little information ; he is 
eighty-seven years of age, a tailor by trade, and 
was busy at his work, three lads plying the needle 
with him ; he said his sight was not so good as 
it had been, and his hearing rather dull ! He 
invited me to take bread and butter and milk, 
all his house afforded, and told me he remembers 
the tree for seventy years, and that from his 
earliest recollection the trunk has always been as 
large as it is now. Within these few 3'ears some 
branches have been cut off (a very rare occur- 
rence indeed with an aged Thorn), which being 
reported to the agent of Mr. Dahvay, that gen- 
tleman went to the spot, and has taken steps to 
prevent a repetition of the act. The large trunk 
is four feet two inches in circumference, and the 
other three feet six inches ; the Thorn is about 
twenty feet high. It stands on high ground, and 
the father of the present proprietor told my in- 
formant that he had seen the Witch Thorn from 
the Scotch coast. 

These old Thorns are numerous in Ireland, 
and are greatly venerated. They are sometimes 
found in fields in crop, but in ploughing, care is 



228 



THE HAWTHORN. 



taken not to approach the roots, lest injury should 
be done. I have seen old Thorns near wells almost 
covered with bits of garments, particularly in the 
south of Ireland." 

Among the numerous insects which either 
wholly or in part derive their sustenance from 
the Hawthorn, 1 will proceed to describe the 
most worthy of note. 

The Black-veined white, or Hawthorn Butter- 
fly {Pieris cratcegi), derives its name from one of 
the favourite trees to which it resorts to lay its 




HAWTHORN BUTTERFLY. 



eggs, and on which its caterpillar feeds. The 
perfect insect resembles very closely the Cabbage 
Butterfly {Pontia Irassicce), so destructive in 
kitchen-gardens. 

It differs principally from the latter in having 
the ribs or veins of the wings black, and in being- 
destitute of the two black spots on the under-side 
of the fore ^raigs, which characterise the Cabbage 
Butterfly. In the month of June or July, the 
Hawthorn Butterfly lays from a hundred to a 
hundred and fifty yellow, cylindrical, ribbed eggs, 
on a leaf of the Hawthorn, apple, or some other 
tree of the same tribe, selecting generally the 



THE HAWTHORN, 



229 



tallest trees. The eggs lie exposed upon the 
leaf without being covered with any sort of wool, 
and after the lapse of about a fortnight become 
of a silvery colour, and are more deeply ribbed. 
The caterpillars can now be discovered shining 
through some of them, and in the course of two 
or three days more they all burst their shells and 
commence their predatory life, the empty cases 
melting like wax in the heat of the sun. The 
newly hatched caterpillars are of a dirty yellow 
colour, and covered with hair ; the head is black, 
and there is a black ring round the neck, and a 
brownish red stripe on both sides of the body. 
On the approach of rain, they draw the leaf 
together over them by means of a web, and thus 
secure for themselves a sufficient shelter, however 
unfavourable the weather may be. This living 
penthouse serves them not only for shelter, but 
for food ; in the course of a few days, therefore, 
having devoured the whole of the leaf except the 
veins, they find it necessary to look out for a 
new lodging, and add the next leaf to their old 
abode, connecting it by a web. But as it som.e- 
times happens that summer-storms have the same 
effect as autumnal frosts in stripping the trees of 
their foliage, in order to prevent any such cata- 
strophe befalling their dw^elling, they secure the 
leaf under which they have taken shelter by fas- 
tening it to the shoots with threads. In rainy 
weather, or when the sun is very hot, they remain 
quiet at home ; but as their appetite increases 
with their size, and the walls and roof of their 
dwelling-house still constitute their only subsist- 
ence, in two days' time another change of resi- 
dence is necessary, and is effected in the same way. 



230 



THE HAWTHORN. 



But easy as tliey find it to provide themselves with 
food and lodgings they are not exempt from mis- 
fortune. Birds and insects destroy them : and 
many perish from unfavourable weather. The 
family thus rapidly dwindles away to twenty or 
thirty, so that a single shoot generally furnishes 
them with sufficient food for the summer. Early 
in autumn they seem to be endowed with a greater 
amount of forethought ; nipping frosts are at 
hand, which their delicate structure is not pre- 
pared to encounter ; cold wintry blasts are about 
to set in, which, unless they make a strenuous 
efi'ort to prevent it, vdW whirl away both them- 
selves and their habitations. In September, there- 
fore, they cease eating, and set about preparing 
a winter's habitation. They bend one leaf over 
another, bring the edges close together and unite 
them ^\dth webs, covering the chamber thus formed 
within with a fine web, so as only to leave them- 
selves a small space to enter at. They aiso unite 
the leaf-stalk which they have prepared for their 
nest with the shoot, so that neither wind nor rain 
can detach it, and, this operation completed, they 
all return to the nest, and secure it on all sides 
from wet and cold. So far, all their proceedings 
have been conducive to the public good ; now, 
hovrever, private comfort is to be attended to : 
each caterpillar selects a place in the chamber, in 
which to pass the dreary months of winter, and 
envelopes himself in a silken web which defies the 
action of the severest weather. 

New life and new instinct return with the first 
warm days of spring. The sunshine entices a 
few of the caterpillars out of their nest ; but, as 
if doubtful whether they can as yet duly supply 



THE HAWTHORN. 



231 



themselves with food, thev retire to their dwellino' 
without tasting a bud. In the beginning of April, 
the temperature being decidedly milder, they 
sally forth in a body, and, finding the blossom- 
buds swelling and beginning to shoot, make up 
for their long fast by devouring them. The leaf- 
buds now begin to expand. These they attack 
in their turn, discard their decayed v/inter's dwell- 
ing, and construct a larger and more commodious 
mansion, to which they retire every evening, or 
during inclement weather. After their second 
change of skin, which takes place about this time, 
they grow very rapidly, and alter in appearance, 
having now a black line running along the centre 
of their backs, vrith a row of yellow spots on 
each side. Their backs are covered with yellow 
and white hairs, and from the central line grey 
stripes diverge to the under side of the body. 
Towards the end of April they moult for the 
third time, and dissolve the republican state of 
society. Each caterpillar now attaches itself by 
threads to a branch of the tree, and in the course 
of a few days is converted into a chrysalis, or 
pupa, which is of a whitish yellow colour, beset 
with black dots and stripes. It remains in this 
state till the end of May or beginning of June, 
when the perfect insect appears, and soon lays 
the foundation of another colony. 

Providentially, this destructive insect has a 
number of enemies, or our Hawthorn-hedges and 
orchards would present but a pitiable appearance. 
Field-bugs watch the caterpillars when they leave 
the nest, pierce them with their beaks, and suck 
the juices. Ichneumon-flies lay their eggs in the 
bodies of the full-grown caterpillars, which after- 



232 



THE HAWTHORN. 



wards serve as food for the ravenous larvae of the 
parasitic insect. Small birds, especially the much 
calumniated, but really valuable, tom-tit, eagerly 
devour them soon after they are hatched, as well 
as in the following spring when they are dispersed 
upon the shoots, and even break open and rifle 
the habitations in which they had so carefully 
ensconced themselves for the winter. Owing to 
these united causes, the number of those which 
survive till the spring is very limited,; so that it 
is only when their natural enemies, the birds and 
above-mentioned insects, have been destroyed, 
either by natural causes or by human agency, 
that their ravages are seriously to be apprehended. 

Another insect which frequents the Hawthorn 
and several of our forest and fruit trees, is the 

Yellow- tailed Moth" {Bombyx, or Forthesia^ 
chri/sorhoed). The caterpillar of this insect closely 
resembles that of the Hawthorn-butterflj^, differ- 
ing principally in having two reddish-yellow tu- 
bercles near the extremity of the body, and four 
near the head. Its habits, too, are very similar : 
but its winter quarters are somewhat more com- 
plicated, consisting of several leaves, and divided 
into chambers. The caterpillars of this species 
are preyed on by small birds to a less extent than 
those of the last-mentioned, owing, it is conjec- 
tured, to the thick hairs on their backs ; but their 
excessive increase is checked by a very small fly, 
scarcely visible to the human eye, which lays its 
eggs singly in the eggs of the Yellow-tailed 
Moth, so that, instead of a caterpillar, the larva 
of a fly is produced, which makes use of the 
egg for its food, and the shell for its dwelling. 
Field-bugs and Ichneumon-flies are also appoint- 



THE HAWTHORN. 



233 



ed instruments for checking their ravages ; and 
the Moth itself is frequently washed from the 
tree while laying its eggs, and perishes on the 
ground. 




YELLO^V^-TAILED 3I0TH. 

Another species of the same genus, the ^'Brown- 
tailed Moth" {Bomhyx, or Porthesia^ auriflua), has 
occasionally been exceedingly destructive. 

In the summer of 1782 especially, this insect 
created great alarm over the country, from its 
colonies established on the Hawthorn and some 
other trees, which were so exceedingly numer- 
ous, we are informed by Mr. W. Curtis (who 
published a treatise on it), that in many of the 
parishes near London subscriptions were opened, 



234 



THE HAWTHORN. 



and the poor people employed to cut off the webs 
at one shilling per hushel, which were burnt under 
the inspection of the churchwardens, overseers, 
or beadles of the parish ; and some idea may be 
formed of their number from the fact, that at 
the outset of this business eighty bushels were 
collected in one day in the parish of Clapham 




BROWN-TAILED MOTH. 



alone. The mischief, however, was not confined 
to the actual destruction of the vegetation, but 
the most absurd alarms were raised from the 
sudden appearance of these creatures, which by 
some were regarded as the forerunners of the 



THE HAVrTHORX. 



235 



Plague ; by others, as the actual cause of it ; and 
by some it was supposed that the destruction of 
every kind of vegetable would follow. Prayers 
were offered up in some of the churches to deliver 
the country from the apprehended approaching 
calamity. 

We leani from Holy Writ, as well as from the 
testimony of travellers, both ancient and modern, 
that an instrument, apparently so contemptible 
as an insect, is occasionally employed by the Al- 
mighty as a national scourge — that creatures, 
whose agency, when they are taken singly, can 
scarcel}^ be said to be productive of any appreci- 
able effect, are sometimes commissioned to spread 
famine and desolation to a degree not to be sur- 
passed by the worst horrors of war. We know, 
too, that the produce of the earth may be 
checked, and the hopes of man disappointed by 
the instrumentality of a yet meaner agent. Wit- 
ness the invisible and unknown cause, which, in 
the present year (1846), defying all the theories 
of our wisest philosophers, is secretly acting on 
our potato-fields, and depriving a large portion of 
our rustic population of a staple article of food. 
AVe cannot think on these things ^^rithout reflect- 
ing on the imsearchableness of the ways of God, 
or ^^ithout deriving to ourselves a deeply prac- 
tical lesson in humility. We may, if we will, 
gain yet further instruction from the history of 
the Hawthorn Butterfly. The transition of in- 
sects generally from the chrysalis to the perfect 
state has been compared, ages ago, to the re- 
surrection, when the redeemed shall rise from 
their earthly tombs with glorified bodies ; and it 
would be rash to pronounce the comparison fanci- 



236 



THE HAWTHORN. 



ful, for Solomon himself has referred us to the 
insect world for wisdom,* as a wiser than he has 
directed our attention to the vegetable. When, 
therefore, in the bright joyous days of June, we 
see so common an object as a white butterfly flit 
by us, we may reflect with advantage on the 
period of difficulty and danger, of watching and 
painstaking, that it completed before it passed 
into its grave — the chrysalis, soon to emerge 
endued with a new body, new appetites, and new 
powers. Is it presumption to say that God has 
so ordered its ways that it might furnish us with 
an example not merely of worldly, but of heavenly 
prudence ? I believe not : the devotional and 
faithful observer of the objects of sense sees in 
all the works of Nature the works of God, and 
must not be condemned if he can derive from the 
few, which he is permitted to a limited degree to 
comprehend, inducements to prepare himself for 
his own approaching change, with the patience, 
industry, and watchfulness of an insect, which, 
obedient to the dictates of instinct, has completed 
the grovelling stage of its existence, as God in- 
tended that it should, and has reached its desti- 
nation. And, after all, the poor worm had only 
instinct for its guide, and its perfect state was 
but a butterfly's life. We have reason and 
Revelation, and the Holy Spirit, for our guides, 
and our perfect state is for eternity ; yet how 
many of us would reverse the order of God's 
Providence, and are bent on leading the butter- 
fly's life flrst ! 

* "Go to tlie ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise."- 
Prov. vi. 6. 



SLOE-FLOWER. 



THE BLACKTHORN. 



Prunus spinosa. 

Natural Order — Rosace^e. 
Class-— Icq s and ria . Orcle r — M o xo gyni a . 

The subject of the last chapter has high claims 
to be ranked among the most interesting of Bri- 
tish trees^, being not only a beautiful ornament to 
the landscape at all seasons^ but possessing a le- 
gendary character which secures for it more than 
the passing attention even of the antiquary. The 
subject of the present memoir, however, though 
its name might lead us to hope that it had more 
points of resemblance to the Hawthorn, possesses 
but little interest for botanist, forester, painter, 
or antiquary. In its natural state it is a rigid, 
v/iry bush, remarkable for no beauty of flower or 
foliage, and not making up for its outward defi- 
ciencies by any inherent virtues residing in fruit, 
stem, or root. 

Its very flowers, which are numerous and ap- 
pear early in Spring, can barely be called orna- 
mental. Expanding, as they do, before any other 
tree has ventured to show signs of returning life, 
we are inclined to look on them in the light of 
daring adventurers, rather than harbingers of the 
1 time which purples all the ground with vernai 
i flowers." Their white ragged petals contrast 
strangely with the sombre hues of the bare 
boughs around them — they look cold and cheer- 
less, and carry the mind back to the frosts and 



THE BLACKTHORN. 



snow of the winter wliicli lias just passed, in- 
stead of forward to the bright days of spring, 
which are coming. A single primrose, a leaf- 
bud of Hawthorn or Elm — either of these is a 
prophet in whom we place unbounded confidence ; 
they are emblems of soft west winds and sunny 
showers : but the Blackthorn bespeaks our at- 
tention to the possible return of hlack east winds, 
frosty nights, and nipping blights."^ 

Xor does the Sloe-tree find a champion in the hus- 
bandman. It is by no means particular in its choice 
of soil and. situation, but thrives everywhere. 
Its long creeping roots extend so rapidly, that in 
the course of a few years a single plant would, if 
left unmolested, cover an acre of ground.f Thus 
left to itself, it has no disposition to assume the 
character of a tree, but forms a low thicket, to 
the exclusion of every more valuable plant, and, 
if growing in the neighbourhood of sheep-walks, 
most unceremoniously levies contributions from 
every woolly visitor who comes within reach of 
its knotted and thorny branches. If, by being 

This tree iisuaUy blossoms while cold, north-east winds blow : 
so that the harsh, rugged weather obtaining at this season is called 
by coimtrv people, ' Blackthorn winter.'"' — -White's Stlhor/ie. 

' The name of !Mere-dn-Bois {Jlotlier of the Wood) is applied 
to the Sloethorn in France, m the neighbourhood of Montai'gis. be- 
cause it has been remarked there, that vrhen it was established on 
the marsfins of woods, its underground shoots, and the suckers which 
sprung: up from them, had a constant tendency to extend the wood 
OTer the adjoining fields ; and that, if the proprietors of lands ad- 
ioinina- forests where the Sloethorn formed the boimdary. did not 
take the precaution of stopping the progress of its roots, these would, 
in a short time, spread over their property : and the suckers which 
arose from them, by anording protection to the seeds of timber trees 
(which would be deposited among them by the wind, or by birds),, 
would ultimately, and at no great distance of time, cause the whole 
to be covered with forests.' ' — Loudox. 



THE BLACKTHORN. 



241 



deprived of its suckers^ it is compelled to throw 
all its strength upwards, it will sometimes attain 
the height of thirty feet, and even in natural situ- 
ations, where it cannot extend itself laterally, it 
rises to fifteen or twenty feet. The name Black- 
thorn" appears to have been given to it from the 
hue of its bark, which being much darker than 
that of the Hawthorn, probably originated the 
name of "Whitethorn'* given to the latter tree. 




The ejjiderrius, or outer coating of the bark, 
has, in this species, as in most others of the same 
genus, a tendency to split horizontally, and to 
curl back while yet partially attached to the tree. 

R 



242 



THE BLACKTHORX. 



The leaf is small, of a dark green colo"iu\ slightly 
downy underneath, especially at the junction of 
the veins, and in its young state. The flo^Yers 
are white and conspicuous only from their abund- 
ance ; as they expand before the leaves, and are 
consequently unrelieved by any verdure, they are 
not beautiful. The fruit when ripe is black, and 
being covered with a delicate bloom, presents, 
late in the autumn, a more pleasing appearance 
than the tree can display at any other season. 

It is found throughout Europe, with the ex- 
ception of the extreme north ; it occurs also in 
the north of Africa, and many parts of Asia, and 
has been introduced into America, where it is fre- 
quently found in hedges perfectly naturalised. 

The Blackthorn is not nearly so valuable for 
the construction of live-hedges as the Hawthorn, 
owing, in the first place, to its rambling habits ; 
and, secondly, to its tendency to send up perpen- 
dicular branches, which are bare of thorns towards 
the base. The wood rarely attains a size which 
\\dll allow it to be applied to any useful purposes 
as timber ; but the straight stems are extensively 
used as walking-sticks, which are much admired 
for their bright colour and numerous knots. The 
thorny dead branches are also recommended as 
being well adapted for forming a fence round 
young trees planted in parks, the sharp and rigid 
thorns effectually preventing the inroads of cattle. 
The leaves are used to adulterate tea, for which 
they form a substitute less liable to detection than, 
almost any other British plant, possessing a bitter, 
aroma^tic principle, which, inasmuch as it is to be f 
attributed to the presence of prussic acid, must 
render them very unwholesome. The fruit is 



THE BLACKTHORN. 



243 



intensely austere and astringent, so much so that 
a single drop of the juice placed on the tongue 
will produce a roughness on the throat and palate 
which is perceptible for a long time. AVhen 
mellowed by frosty however, it becomes red and 
pulpy, but at no period of its existence claims 
to be considered a grateful fruit. The juice of 
it, in its mmpe state, is said to enter largely 
into the composition of spurious port-wine, and it 
may, it is said, be fermented into a liquor resem- 
bling new port. 

So impudently and notoriously is this fraud 
carried on in London, and so boldly is it avowed, 
that there are books published called Publicans' 
Guides," &c., in which receipts are given for 
the manufacture of port-\\T.ne from cider, brandy, 
and sloe-juice, coloured with tincture of red san- 
dars or cudbear."* This villainous compound may 
be converted into "old port" in a few days by 
the addition of catechu. The corks may be 
stained by being soaked in a strong decoction of 
brazil-wood and a little alum ; and even bottles 
are manufactured which contain a sufficient quan- 
tity of lime to be sensibly acted on by the acid, 
and to produce a counterfeit " crust !" 

In France the unripe fruit is sometimes pickled 
and sent to table as a substitute for olives, and 
in Germany and Russia it is crushed and fer- 

* Red sandars is a preparation of sandal-wood, used as a dye. 
Cudbear, so called after a !Mr. Ciithbert, who first brought it into 
use, is a lichen {Lecanora taHdrea)^ found growing in several parts 
of the Continent, and in Great Britain, on granitic and volcanic rocks, 
and is also used as a dye. The chemical test called litmus is a 
preparation of this vegetable. Catechu is a substance procured by 
boiling chips of the heart-wood of Acacia catechu ; it is a dark- 
coloured, powerful, astringent. 



244 



THE BLACKTHORN. 



mented with water, and a spirit distilled from it. 
In Daupliine, the juice of the ripe fruit is used 
for colouring wine. Letters marked on linen or 
woollen with this juice will not wash out. The 
substance sold by druggists under the name of 
German Acacia is prepared from the juice of the 
unripe fruit. ^ 

The bark, according to Dr. Lindley, is one of 
the substances which has been reported to re- 
semble Jesuits' bark"f in its effects. It may 
be used for tanning leather; a decoction of it 
with alkali dyes yellow, and it may be employed 
Vv'ith advantage as a substitute for galls in the 
manufacture of ink. There are several varieties, 
differing principally in the size of the leaf and 
fruit ; but the only one deser\ing notice is the 
double flowered, which is cultivated and said to be 
highly prized in Japan and China for the abund- 
ance of its blossom. 

* The true^ or Egypticni Acacia^ is the production of Accvcia Nilo- 
tica^ and is used in medicine as a mild astringent. 

t Jesuits' bark, Peruvian bark, or (as it is simply called) Bark, 
is the produce of several species of trees growing in Peru, and belong- 
ing to the genus Cincliona. The order to which these trees belong, 
CinclionacecB^ is remarkable for containing a large number of plants, 
the medicinal properties of which render them highly valuable to man. 
Many of them partake largely of the properties residing in Peruvian 
bark ; Ipecacuanha, on many accounts, is a valuable ally of the phy- 
sician, and several other genera possess similar virtues ; Coffee be- 
longs to the same order ; while the properties of some are so active 
that they are said to be a certain antidote against the bite of serpents, 
and others are so deleterious in their effects that Indians have been 
poisoned by using the wood to make spits for roasting meat upon, 
while others again are employed for the destruction of rats and mice. 
Jesuits' bark received its name from having been introduced into 
notice by Cardinal de Lugo and the Jesuits about the middle of the 
seventeenth century. The tree which produces it derived its name 
" Cinchona " from the Lady of the Spanish Viceroy, the Countess del 
Cinchon, who vvas cured by the bark. According to some, the Peru- 



THE BLACKTHORN, 



245 



On the wliole^ tiie Blackthorn, in its natural 
state, possesses few valuable qualities. It cer- 
tainly does not recommend itself to our favourable 
consideration on the score of beauty, and being 
employed to adulterate some substances, and as 
an indifferent substitute for others, we are in- 
clined to suspect its honesty ; and as it is, more- 
over, a great enemy to the agriculturist, we do 
not scruple to include it among the ^* thorns and 
thistles " of the primaaval curse. Yet, strange to 
say, as if to be both a memorial of the curse, and 
of the implied promise, that the industry of man 
should not be without effect in mitigating the 
consequences of that curse, the austere sloe has 
been converted by human skill and labour into 
the luscious plum, one of our most valued fruits. 
It is a well-known fact, that the thorns of several 
fruit trees, the Vv'ild Pear for instance, disappear 
under cultivation : the variety of the Blackthorn, 

vians learned the use of this bark by observing certain animals 
anected with intermittent complaints instinctively led to it : whilst 
others say that a Peruvian having an ague, was cm-ed by happening 
to drink of a pool which, from some trees havino- fallen into it, tasted 
of Cinchona. It acts powerfully as an astnngent and tonic ; and as 
an antiseptic it is so efficacious as to preserve from decay not only 
animal solids but animal fluids Avhen entirely detached from the 
living body. But its principal application is to the cure of intermit- 
tent' fevers, where it rarely fails of success. The most valuable 
species of Cinchona are C. micrantha and C. condarrdnea. Bark is 
not now administered in its native state so frequently as it formerly 
was, it having been discovered in 1820 that the active principle re- 
siding in it might be separated in the form of a crystallized salt by 
combining it chemically with sulphuric acid. In this state it is called 
Sulpaate of Qidrdn, or simply Quinin. Its taste, like that of the bark 
itself, is excessively bitter : it is now generally employed as a sub- 
stitute for bark, of which it possesses the medicinal virtues with this 
great advantage, that a few grains of the salt are equivalent to an 
ounce of the bark. The name Quinin is a corruption of Qainqidna, 
another form of the word Ciyidtona. 



246 



THE BLACKTHORN. 



called the BuUace tree^^ is also entirely destitute 
of tliornSj and produces edible fruit ; ^vllile most 
of tlie kinds of plums cultivated in our gardens 
are referred by some eminent horticulturists -j- to 
the same origin. Every cultivator of Dahlias or 




FRUIT AND FOLIAGE OF BULLACE TREE. 

Hearts-ease must be aware that it is impossible to 
assign limits to the variations which these plants 
will undergo when subjected to the skilful treat- 
ment of the florist ; and there is every reason^ 



* priiicus insliitia. 



t Knight, Louden, 6cc. 



TPIE BLACKTHORN. 



247 



deduced both from theory and practice^ why the 
same rule should be extended to fruit trees. In 
the Horticultural Society's Transactions, 274 
distinct varieties of the plum actually in cultiva- 
tion are enumerated, a number sufficiently great 




MYROBALAN PLUM. 

to admit of every possible gradation from the 
worthless sloe to the delicious green-gage. All 
these are referred by some horticulturists to ano- 
ther species, Prunus domestical which, as its name 



248 



THE BLACKTHORN. 



would imply, is no longer found in a really ^yild 
state ; and even when it is occasionally met with 
in hedges, approaches much more closely in cha- 
racter to the undoubtedly wild BuUace-tree, or 
Blackthorn, than it does to the garden varieties. 
The inference which we may safely draw from 
this fact is, that if the yellow magmnn-homnn plum 




3IAGXUM-B0NUM PLUM. 

may be referred for its origin to the small black 
fruit of the domesticated plum," as we find it 
in our hedges, we have at least equal reason for 
referring the latter to the sloe-tree. 

For many of our best varieties of plum we are 
indebted to the French. First among these stands 



THE BLACKTHORX. 249 

the Green-gage. It is known in France by several 
names: that of Reine Claude" was given to it 
from its liaA'ing been introduced into France by 
Queen Claude, wife of Francis I. During the 
Revolution, so great was the horror entertained 
against everything bearing the shghtest allusion 
to royalty, that in order to retain its popularity 
it was oblis'ed to chan^'e its name to ''Prune 
citoyemie," Citizen-plum. It received its name 
Green-gage from the following circumstance. 
The Gage family, in the last century, procured 
from the monasterv of Chartreuse at Paris, a 
collection of fruit-trees, the names of v\'hich were 
in every instance but one carefully attached to 
them. That of the Reine Claude, however, had 
been either omitted by the packer, or been rubbed 
off' during the transit to England. The conse- 
quence v\'as, that it stood without a name until it 
bore fruit, when the gardener very appropriately 
called it ^' Green-gage,'' in honour of the family 
who had introduced it. Since the revival of 
royalty in France, the Citizen-plum has recovered 
its ancient name, and ^' Reine-claudes are now 
exported in large quantities. 

The best prunes and French-plums come from 
Provence and the neighbourhood of Tours, the 
quality depending upon the sort of fruit used, 
and the care observed in the preparation. The 
commoner kinds are shaken from the tree and 
baked in an oven ; but the finer sorts are gathered 
singly by the stems before sunrise, and laid, with- 
out touching one another, exposed to the sun and 
air several days before baking, great care being 
taken not to remove the delicate bloom vrith 
wliich they are covered. 



250 



THE BLACKTHORN. 



Brignoles * are the dried fruit of a tree which 
grows principally near the town of the same name 
in Provence, They are peeled when fresh, and 
dried in the sun. When the moisture which they 
contained is entirely evaporated, the stones are 
taken out by hand, and the plums are pressed 
together in such a manner as to make them quite 
round. They are afterwards packed into small 
wooden boxes, ornamented with cut paper, and 
form an important article of revenue to the 
growers. 

The Damascene, or Damson, takes its name 
from Damascus, where it grows in great quanti- 
ties, and from w^hence it was brought into Italy 
about 114 B. c. It is used principally for pre- 
serves, and for making a kind of jelly called 

Damson cheese." 

Many kinds of plum were known to the Greeks 
and Romans ; and Gerard had in his garden at 
Holborn, in 1597, ^^three-score sorts, all strange 
and rare." 

For a fuller description of the garden-plums, 
I must refer my readers to works treating on 
horticulture. 

The insects which prove most injurious to the 
Blackthorn and its varieties are, the brown and 
yellow-tailed moths, already noticed, and the 
following, a brief account of which may be ac- 
ceptable, as displaying the w^onderful instinct 
possessed by the meanest and most contemptible 
(to use a common but an unconsidered expres- 
sion) of God's creatures. 

The Copper-coloured Weevil (C^/rcz^/io or i 
cites ciipreus) is a small beetle, less than two lines 

* Corrupted into Prunellas, 



THE BLACKTHORN. 



251 



in length, furnished with a long proboscis and hard 
wing cases, which are furrowed and of a metallic 
copper colour. It is called in Germany PJlaumen- 



hoJirer^ or Plum-horer, because it selects the plum 
for the reception of its eggs, and for the nourish- 
ment of the little larvae proceeding from them. 
When the plums have attained the size of almonds, 
the weevil selects one in w^hich to deposit an egg. 
As the larva when hatched feeds on the fruit, and 
as it can only be transformed into a beetle when 
buried in the ground, the parent-beetle is in- 
structed to meet this difhculty, which she does 
most effectually. Having selected the plum 
which is to afford sustenance to one of her future 
progeny, she commences operations by sawing 
half-way through the stem of the fruit ; and then, 
as if wearied with the sameness of her work, 
1 retires to the plum, and having prepared a nest 
I by raising the skin and making a cavity under- 
neath, deposits an egg at the entrance. She then 
turns down the skin, closing the orifice so effec- 
tually that not a drop of water can reach the 




Curculio Rhyncites. 
The line underneatli denotes the natural size. 



252 



THE BLACKTHORN. 



egg, and continues her work on the stalk, either 
until the plum falls to the ground by its own 
weight, or it is left suspended by so fine a thread 
that the first violent wind completely separates it 
from the tree. This operation occupies two or 
three hours, and is repeated until all her eggs are 
laid, one only being intrusted to each plum. In 
the course of a few days, if the weather be favour- 
able, the larva is hatched, and immediately begins 
to devour the pulp with which it is enveloped, en- 
larging its mansion in proportion to its growth. 
In five or six weeks it attains its full size, and 
having by this time demolished all of its habita- 
tion except the walls, eats its way out, and buries 
itself in the ground, where it forms a new habita- 
tion, and awaits its transformation. In the follow- 
ing spring it appears as a beetle, and in its turn 
begins the work of destruction. Immoderately 
wet or dry weather is equally prejudicial to its 
attaining the perfect state. If wet weather sets in, 
the plum soon becomes rotten and unfit for its use ; 
and if dry, warm weather sets in, and the half- 
grown plum and egg shrivel together. The ex- 
cessive increase of these pernicious insects may be 
best checked by violently shaking the trees which 
appear to be prematurely shedding their fruit, and 
destroying all which fall to the ground. 

Another insect which occasions the fall of the 
plum in its early stage is the Plum Saw-fly, {Ten- 
thredo morio). Seen at a little distance, it resem- 
bles a house-fly, but is strikingly distinguished by 
having four wings instead of two. The head and 
body are black, and the feet of a reddish yellow : 
it is not likely to be confounded with any other 
insect, as it is the only fly with feet of the same 



THE BLACKTHORN. 



253 



colour wliicli appears when the plum is in blossom. 
As soon as the Hower-buds of the plum-tree begin 
to expand, the fly cuts obliquely with its saws 
into the calyx of some of the larger kinds, and 



deposits its egg. In the course of a few" days 
the larva is hatched, and immediately leaving its 
birth-place, w^here there is no suitable food for 
it, hastens to the minute plum growing near it, 
and fixes itself to the centre of the stone, w^hich, 
being tender and milky, affords it the best nourish- 
ment. The plum meanw^hile continues to grow, 
and the insect with it. In about six weeks, by 
which time the larva has attained its full size, the 
fruit and its destroyer fall together to the ground, 
when the latter buries itself in the earth, prepares 
its winter habitation, and emerges in the following 
spring a perfect insect. 

So great is the mischief wTOUght by these flies, 
that they sometimes leave not a plum on the trees. 
In the year 1822, when their ravages w^ere very 
extensive, Schmidberger had the plums on a Mag- 
num-bonum tree, which promised to be very pro- 
ductive, counted : the number, amounted to eight 
thousand 1 Only three plums arrived at perfection. 





Tentliredo morio — Plum Saw-fly. 
The line underneath denotes the natural size. 



254 



THE BLACKTHORN, 



The weather was uncommonly favourable to them 
that year ; they laid their eggs without interrup- 
tion, and the larva found no difficulty in attaining 
its full development. A rainy season at the time 
when the Plum is in blossom is their greatest 
enemy. Their numbers for another year may be 
diminished by daily collecting and destroying the 
plums which fall to the ground. Their increase 
may also be materially checked by destroying the 
fly itself while employed in laying its eggs or 
sucking honey from the young blossoms. 



s 




THE WILD CHERRY-TREE. 



THE CHERRY. 



Cerasus sylyestris. 
Cerasus yulgaris. 

Natural Order — Rosacea. 
Class — IcosANDRiA. Order — Monogynia. 

The subject of the present memoir afFords 
another eminent example, in addition to that 
recorded in the last chapter, of the beneficence 
of the Almighty in permitting man to control 
the course and operations of Nature, so as to 
render them, in a measure, subserYient to his 
gratification and adYantage. Human industry, 
we haYe seen, has couYerted the Thorn of the 
primaeval curse into the fruitful Plum, and in 
I the Cherry-tree Y'e have another instance scarcely 
less remarkable ; by dint of careful perseverance, 
a juiceless unpalatable berry becomes a delicious 
and nourishing fruit. The success Y'hich has 
attended the eff'orts of earlier cultivators ought, 
, therefore, to supply us ^Yith a delightful incen- 
( tive to industry, and, at the same time, a power- 
' ful motive to gratitude to our great Creator and 
Preserver. It ^Yere Y'ell if vve never failed to 
; raise our hearts in thankfulness to Him for the 
t power Y'hich he has given us to employ for our 
i own use and profit the ^'lixing thmgs that move," 
which Y^e have domesticated, and ^^the trees, in 
the which is the fruit of a tree-yielding seed," 



258 



THE CHERRY. 



which we have taught to be more productive 
and profitable. We should then bear in mind, 
that the breath of life/' which He breathed 
into our nostrils, is under Him our great in- 
structor, and be prepared to submit ourselves 
in simple faith to His teaching, in matters 
where higher interests than things of the body 
are at stake. 

" Although no part of mighty Nature be 
Llore stored with beautj^ power, and mystery ; 
Yet to encourage human industry, 
God has so ordered that no other part 
Such space and such dominion leaves for art. 
"We nowhere art do so triumphant see, 
As w^hen it grafts or buds the tree. 
In other things we count it to excel, 
If it a docile scholar can appear 
To Nature, and but imitate her will : 
It over-rules, and is her master here. 
It imitates her Maker's power divine. 
And changes her sometimes, and sometimes does refine ; 
It does, like Grace, the fallen tree restore, 
To its blest state of Paradise before." 

Cowley. 

The Cherry-tree, though more familiarly known 
as a valued tenant of the orchard and garden, 
possesses undeniable claims to be considered a 
naturalized, if not a native, Forest Tree, resting 
its title both on its size and on the wildness of 
its haunts. It is not unfrequently met with in 
woods and hedges, and in the north of England 
is found on the mountains at an elevation of a 
thousand feet above the level of the sea. In con- 
genial soils and situations it rises to the height 
of seventy or eighty feet, and in Scotland is 
planted for its timber. In some of the wilder 
parts of the same country it is as plentiful as the 
Birch, and propagates itself as freely. 



THE CHERRY. 



259 



In a picturesque point of view, its trunk and 
branches are light and graceful, but not suffici- 
ently concealed by its scattered and somewhat 
scanty foliage. In early spring, however, the 
very deficiency of foliage renders more conspicu- 




FLOWER OF THE WILD CHERRY. 



ous its beautiful cluster of large flowers ; while, 
in autumn, the bright crimson hue of its fading 
leaves irresistibly ca^tches the eye, and imparts 
to the landscape a brilliancy which amply atones 
for any other defects. Amid mountainous scenery 



260 



THE CHERRY. 



it is often particularly striking, contrasting ex- 
quisitely (especially when kindled into a brighter 
blaze by the straggling rays of the sun) with the 
dull grey of the rocks among which it has taken 
its station, and the rich brown of the river which 
it overhangs. 




FRUIT OF THE WILD CHERRY. 

There are several varieties of the tree even in 
the wild state; but modern botanists are of opi-. 
nion that these may all be reduced to two spe- 
cies, the Black and Red-fruited. 



THE CHERRY. 



261 



It cleriyes its name from Cerasus (now Kera- 
soun), a city of ancient Pontus, in Asia, whence 
it was brought by LucuUus, the Roman general 
(b. c. 67), at the close of the Mithriclatic war. 
Lucullus thought this tree of so much import- 
ance, that, when he was granted a triumph, he 
placed it in the most consj^icuous situation among 
the royal treasures which he had captured during 
the war ; nor can there be any doubt, that, in 
permanent utility, it was the most valuable of 
his acquisitions. Some authors, howeyer, are of 
opinion that the wild Cherry* was the same as 
the Cornel, which was indigenous in Italy at the 
time, but not cultiyated as a fruit tree, and that 
Lucullus only introduced improved sorts. At all 
events, it does not appear to haye been culti- 
vated previously to the time of Lucullus, though 
afterwards it increased so rapidly that, in the 
course of a hundred and twenty years, it had 
reached even Britain. The Apronian cherries 
are red; the Lutatian black; the Csecilian round. 
The Junian have a pleasant flavour ; but are so 
tender, that they must be eaten under the tree, 
as they will not bear carriage. The best are 
those which in Campania are called ' Plinian ; ' 
in Belgium the ^Lusitanian' are considered the 
best. In the Rhine district grows another sort, 
which has a hue of black, red, and green, and 
never appears to be ripe. The Macedonian 
grow on a tree vrhich rarely exceeds two cubits 
in height. "f 

* The fruit of this tree was subseciuentiy called the Comel-Cherry 
by some authors. 

t Pliny's Xatural History^ book xv. chapter 30. 



262 



THE CHERRY. 



According to the foregoing statement, the 
Cherry-tree was introduced into Britain before 
A. D. 53. The earhest mention of the fruit being 
exposed to sale by hawkers in London is in 
Henry the Fifth's reign, 1415. New sorts were 
introduced from Flanders, by Richard Haines, 
Henry the Eighth's fruiterer, and being planted 
in Kent, w^ere called Flanders" or Kentish 
Cherries," of w^hich Gerard (1597) says, " They 
have a better juice, but watery, cold, and moist." 
Philips says, There is an account of a Cherry- 
orchard of thirty-two acres in Kent, which, in 
the year 1540, produced fruit that sold, in those 
early days, for lOOOZ. ; which seems an enormous 
sum, as at that period good land is stated to 
have let at one shilling per acre." Evelyn tells 
us, that in his time (1662) an acre planted with 
Cherries, one hundred miles from London, had 
been let at 10/. During the Commonwealth 
(1649), the manor and mansion of Henrietta 
Maria, Queen of Charles I., at Wimbledon, in 
Surrey, were surveyed previously to being sold, 
and it appears that there were upwards of two 
hundred Cherry-trees in the gardens. Since 
that time the Cherry-tree has found universal 
admission into shrubberies, gardens, and orchards. 
Kent still continues the principal county for 
cherries ; yet now^here do they grow in greater 
luxuriance and beauty than on the banks of the 
Tamar, in Devonshire, where they freely thrive 
into stately trees, beautiful with blossoms of a 
surprising whiteness, greatly relieving the sedu- 
lous bee, and attracting birds."* 



^ Evelyn's Sylva. 



THE CHERRY. 



263 



In popular mythology the Cherry-tree is, for 
some unknown reason, associated with the cuckoo. 
In Germany, " the cuckoo never sings until he 
has thrice eaten his fill of cherries." In York- 
shire, children were formerly, and perhaps still 
are, accustomed to sing round a Cherry-tree 
the following invocation : — 

Cuckoo, cherry-tree,* 
Come down and tell me 
How many years I have to live." 

Each child then shook the tree, and the num^ber 
of cherries which fell betokened the years of its 
future life. 

At Hamburgh a feast is annually celebrated, 
called the Feast of Cherries," in which troops 
of children parade the streets with green boughs, 
ornamented with cherries, to commemorate a 
triumph obtained in the following manner — In 
1482, the Hussites threatened the city of Ham- 
burgh with immediate destruction, when one of 
the citizens, named Wolf, proposed that all the 
children in the city, from seven to fourteen years 
of age, should be clad in mourning, and sent as 
supplicants to the enemy. Procopius Nasus, 
chief of the Hussites, was so touched wdth this 
spectacle, that he received the young suppli- 
cants, regaled them wdth cherries and other 
fruits, and promised them to spare the city. 
The children returned crowned with leaves, 
shouting Victory ! " and holding boughs laden 
with cherries in their hands. 



* A popular nursery rhjone begins with the same words. 



264 



THE CHERRY. 



The naturalized species of Cherry in Great 
Britain are the Black and Red-fruited, belonging 
to the genus Prunns of Linnaeus, Cerasus of 
Jussieu."* Prunus avium, Prunus Cerasus, or 
Cerasus sylvestris, is the Black-fruited Cherry, 
which, in favourable situations, attains the di- 
mensions of a tree. Its leaves are large, pointed, 
somewhat drooping, and slightly downy on the 
under side. The fruit is small, round, black 
when ripe, of an insipid bitterish flavour, and 
containing a stone which is very large in pro- 
portion to the size of the fruit. It is known in 
various districts by the name of Gean (a corrup- 
tion of Guignes), Merries (from merisier, said to 
be derived from amere, bitter, and cerise, cherry), 
Corone, or Coroun, (from corone, a crow, in 
allusion to its blackness), Black-heart, &c. 

The growth of the Cherry, in its progress to 
maturity, is pyramidal ; the branches springing 
from the stem at regular intervals, or at the 
commencement of each annual shoot : and as its 
spray is stiff, strong, and open, it does not yield 
to, but stoutly resists the blast ; it is, therefore, 
one of the few trees that can be advantageously 
planted as a nurse or subsidiary to the Oak, as 
it is neither apt to overtop or crush its neigh- 
bours by a rampant growth or wide-spreading 
head like the "Wych-elm or Ash, or to hurt and 
injure them in winds and storms, as is con- 
stantly the case where trees of a more flexible i 
or easily agitated spray are introduced. It has 

* Cij^asus msij be distinguished from Prunus^ by its leaves being ■ 
conduplicate, or folded together in their young state, instead of being- 
convolute or rolled together ; and by the fruit being always desti- 
tute of the bloom which characterizes all the varieties of Plum. 



THE CHERRY. 



265 



also this further recommendation as a nurse to 
the Oak^ that^ although a quick-growing plant 
while youngs and fulfilling the duty of a pro- 
tector, it naturally yields to the tree it has fos- 
tered, after the first twenty or thirty years of 
its growth, and is afterwards content to vegetate 
beneath its shade. By producing suckers in 
abundance, it also furnishes a plantation with 
a profitable underwood, which may be cut once 
every five, six, ten, or more years, according to 
the purposes to which it is to be applied."^ 

Those botanists who are of opinion that Lu- 
cullus only introduced new kinds of Cherries 
into Europe, consider this species a native, and 
not without reason; for it grows freely and abun- 
dantly in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Greece, 
Russia, the ^lediterranean islands. Great Bri- 
tain and Ireland, attaining a larger size in the 
north than in the south. Nevertheless, its general 
diff'usion and apparent wildness of grovrth is not 
conclusive evidence in favour of its beincr con- 
sidered a native of these countries. It has been 
remarked by M. le Conte, that in America, when 
Beech woods are cut down, they are speedily 
replaced by Cherry-trees. He accounts for this 
on the supposition, that birds, who eat the fruit 
with avidity, may have resorted to the woods 
for shelter, and there dropped the stones, which 
either lay dormant, or germinated and remained 
in a diminutive state until the Beeches were cut 
down, when they advanced rapidly, and finally 
became the principal occupants of the soil. Now, 
if the Cherry-tree has become thus thoroughly 



* Selby's British Forest Trees. 



266 



THE CHERRY. 



naturalized in America, into which there can 
be no doubt that it was introduced^ there is 
very fair ground for the opinion that its ex- 
tensive diffusion through Europe may be attri- 
buted to the same cause^ and that the assertion 
of the okler authors, that it is of Asiatic origin, 
is correct. 

The second species, which, though often found 
in our woods and hedges, is not really wild in 
any part of Europe, is the Red-fruited Cherry. 
It is called by botanists Prunus Cerasus^ or by 
those who assign the Plum and the Cherry to 
distinct genera, Cerasus vulgaris. To this spe- 
cies many of the best sorts of our garden Cherries 
are referred, including the Flemish and Kentish 
Cherries, uMaydukes (from Medoc, the pro\dnce 
in France, where the variety originated), and 
many others. It is a much smaller tree than 
the last, from which it may be distinguished by 
its unpointed leaves, which do not droop and are 
never downy beneath, and by its red, acid, fruit. 

In England, Cherries are to be considered 
rather as a luxury than as a staple article of 
food ; but on the Continent, particularly in 
France, they are highly prized as supplying food 
to the poor ; and a law was passed in that 
country, in 1669, commanding the preservation 
of all Cherry-trees in the royal forests. The 
consequence of this was that the forests became 
so full of fruit trees, that there was no longer 
room for the underwood ; when they were all 
cut down, except such young ones as were in- 
cluded among the numl3er of standard saplings 
required by the law to be left to secure a supply. 
This measure was a great calamity to the poor, 



THE CHERRY. 



267 



who, during several months of the year, lived 
either directly or indirectly on the fruit. Soup 
made of Cherries, with a little bread and a 
little butter, was the common nourishment of the 
wood-cutters and charcoal-burners of the forest. 
Of late years the practice of planting Cherry- 
trees by the road-side has been extensively 
adopted in Germany ; and one may now travel 
from Strasburg to Munich, a distance of two 
hundred and fifty miles, through an avenue of 
Cherries, interspersed with Walnuts, Plums, and 
Pears. By far the greater part of the first are 
ungrafted trees, which succeed in the poorest 
soil, and in the coldest and most elevated situa- 
tions. A large portion of the tract of country 
which bears the name of Black Forest is an 
elevated, irregular surface, with no other wood 
than the Cherry-trees, which have been planted 
by the road-side. 

Cherries are preserved in various ways. Some- 
times they are simply dried in the sun, in w^hich 
state they are much used for puddings ; they are 
also preserved in brandy, or converted into mar- 
malade, lozenges, &c. Fermented and distilled, 
they furnish the liqueurs called Ratafia, Kirsch- 
wasser, and Maraschino. Wine and vinegar are 
also made from them ; and an oil is extracted from 
the kernels, which is used to give the flavour of 
bitter almonds to puddings, &c. ; the leaves are 
also used for the same purpose. 

From the bark of the Cherry-tree an elastic, 
but not very viscid gum exudes, which is said 
to have many of the properties of Gum-arabic* 

* Any excessive flow of gum is very injurious to tlie tree ; and, 
indeed, in time proves fatal. 



268 



THE CHERRY. 



Hasselquist relates that more than a hundred 
men^ during a siege^ were kept ahve for nearly 
two months, without any other sustenance than 
a little of this gum, taken sometimes into the 
mouth, and suffered gradually to dissolve. 

The timber is very valuable, being of a firm 
texture, red-coloured, close-grained, easily work- 
ed, and susceptible of a high polish. These 
qualities render it a desirable material to the 
cabinet-maker, and the furniture made of it is 
little, if at all inferior, both in respect to beauty 
and durability, to that of the plainer kinds of 
mahogany. In this country, where the wood 
just mentioned has in a great measure super- 
seded all other kinds in our articles of furniture, 
and where the Cherry-tree has never been cul- 
tivated to any extent as a timber tree, it is rare 
to meet with specimens of furniture made of 
its wood ; but in France, and other parts of the 
Continent where it abounds, it is extensively 
used for this and various other purposes, and 
is eagerly purchased by the cabinet-maker, the 
turner, and the musical-instrument maker. Its 
value, however, is not restricted to the uses 
made of it by those artisans ; it is equally ap- 
plicable to out-of-door uses and general car- 
pentry ; and where exposure to the atmosphere, 
or the alternation of dryness and moisture is 
required, it is superior to most other timber we 
possess, and is only inferior to the best Oak, or 1 
its rival the Larch." * ^ 
When treated as coppice, it is very useful for ' 
hop-poles, props for vines, and hoops for casks. 



^ Selby. 



THE CHERRY. 



269 



The Turks have the tubes of their pipes, which 
are from four to seven feet long, made of Cherry 
stems.* Like the Ash, it burns very well as fire- 
wood in its green state ; but if kept two or three 
years, and then used as fuel, it smoulders aw^ay 
like tinder, without producing much heat. 

The double -flowered Cherry is a favourite or- 
nament of our gardens and lawns in spring, when 
its numerous snow-white flowers present a beauti- 
ful appearance. Like many other double flowers, 
it produces no fruit ; but the structure of its 
blossoms is particularly interesting to the physio- 
logical botanist, illustrating, better perhaps than 
any other plant, the fact that the seed-vessel, 
among other compound organs, is a m.etamor- 
phosed or transformed leaf, altered in structure 
and functions, so as to perform offices in vegeta- 
ble economy entirely different from those of the 
true leaf. In the double Cherry it appears to 
return to its primitive form ; for in the centre of 
each flower is a minute leaf, exactly similar to 
those of the branches, notched and veined in the 
same manner, and even folded together like the 
young stem leaves. Other double flowers, beside 
those of the Cherry, occasionally present the 
same appearance, especially Roses ; but in all 
these the phenomenon is an irregular mode of 
growth, whereas in the Cherry it is constant. 

The Cherry is a favourite tree of the Wood- 
pecker, who perforates its trunk for the sake of 
feeding on the larvae of insects, and hollowing 
out his nest: but the remarks made at page 151 
are equally applicable to the case of this tree. 

^ The best are made of the Mahaleb, or Perfumed, Cherry. 



270 



THE CHERRY. 



The Cherry-tree is not peculiarly liable to the 
attacks of insects. Its principal enemies are the 
Thrush and Blackhird, who annually claim a few 
Cherries in payment for their cheerful songs, and 
for the pains which they bestow in clearing our 
gardens of snails and other vermin. One insect, 
however {Acarus telariiis), \i\ovn\ to gardeners 
as the Red Spider, occasionally does considerable 
injury. It has eight legs ; its colour varies from 
yellowish to brown and reddish, and on each side 
of the back is a blackish spot. It is more fre- 
quent in the green-house than the open air. It 
spins a sort of web over the leaves, particularly 
on the under surface, and sucks the juice of the 
plants with its proboscis, completely enfeebling 
them, and stripping them of their leaves. The 
plants which it mostly attacks in the open air are 
the Kidney-bean, the Lime, and the Cherry. 

Various remedies have been prescribed, which 
may easily be carried into effect in the green- 
house and hot-house ; but in the open air, the 
only practicable preventive is to keep the tree 
in a healthy state, vrhen the Spider will rarely 
touch it. 



THE BIRD-CHERRY. 



Cerasus padus. 

The Bird-Cherry in its wild state rarely attains 
the dimensions of a tree ; but there are in exist- 
ence cultivated specimens between thirty and forty 
feet high, and a foot or more in diameter. It 
is most worthy of attention for its copious long 
clusters of snow-white flowers, which are much 
smaller than those of the Cherry, and soon fade. 
The fruit, called also Foiol-Cherry , Cluster-Cherry ^ 
and in Scotland Hag -Cherry , is small and worth- 
less. Birds of several kinds soon devour this 
fruit, which is nauseous, and probably dangerous 
to mankind, though perhaps not of so deadly a 
quality as the essential oil, or distilled water of 
the leaves."* It is most abundant in the north 
of England and Scotland. In Gerard's time it 
grevv^ wild in the woods of Kent, where it was 
used as a stock to graft Cherries on : and in 
Lancashire it was found in almost every hedge. 
The wood is much used in France by the cabinet- 
maker, but Httle known in this country ; owing, 
among other causes, to the difficulty of obtaining 
it sufficiently large. The leaves are more fre- 
quently attacked by caterpillars than those of any 
other species of Cherry ; hence, a ^Titer in the 
Agricultural Journal of Bavaria recommends that 

* English Flora. 

T 



272 THE CHERRY. 

from one to four young trees (according to their 
size) should be planted at intervals of one or 




BLOSSOM OF THE BIRD-CHERRY. 

two hundred yards in orchards, when, he says, 
almost aR the caterpillars and butterflies will 
resort to them. The appearance of the Bird- 
Cherry will be hideous, but the fruit-trees will 
be safe. 

Several other species of Cerasus are extensively 
cultivated in England as ornamental trees and 



THE CHERRY. 



273 



shrubs^ but none of them have any pretension 
to be admitted among British Trees. My notice 




FRUIT OF THE BIRD-CHERRY. 



of them therefore must be very brief. Cerasus 
lauroccrasus^ the Laurel-Cherry ^ or^ as it is now 
almost exclusively called, Laurel, was introduced 
into Europe from Trebizond, in Asia Minor, in 
1576 ; consequently, it is a mistaken notion to 
identify it with the famed Laurel of the ancients. 
This error is the more frequent, from our having 
given to the true Laurel, Laurus nohilis^ the 
name of Bay. Laurel leaves abound in prussic 



274 



THE CHERRY. 



acid, and the water distilled from them is a most 
virulent poison. The custom of using them to 
flavour custards, puddings, &c., should therefore 
be strongly deprecated. Insects, the appearance 
of which is liable to be injured by immersion in 
spirits of wine, may readily be killed by being 
shut into a closed box with bruised leaves, the 
aroma from which speedily takes effect. 

Ctrasus Lusitanica, or Portugal Laurel, is a na- 
tive of the country from which it derives its name. 
It is not of rapid growth, but is a valuable acqui- 
sition to the shrubbery, from its elegance of form 
and hardy nature. 




PORTUGAL LAUREL. 



THE :VfOUXTAlX ASH. 



t 



THE MOUNTAIN ASH. 
Pyrus aucuparia. 

Xatiiral Order — Rosace.^;. 
Class — I c 0 s A N D R I A . Order — P e N t a (i Y x i a . 

This universally admired tree chooses its dwell- 
ing, as its name would imply, in the wildest and 
most exposed situations, where, though impatient 
of "being itself sheltered by any other kind of 
trees, it affords a friendly protection to grass and 
other plants which choose to grow beneath its 
shade. As long as it overtops its companions in 
the wood or mountain side, it is a vigorous and 
stately tree : but when it has attained its utmost 
height, and its m.ore aspiring neighbours begin to 
screen it from its due share of air and light, it 
quietly retires from the contest, pines away in 
confinement, and suffers itself to be destroyed by 
the drip of the very trees that it formerly nursed 
and protected. 

■ Hence we rarely meet with a full-grown ]\Ioun- 
tain Ash in a crowded forest of ancient trees. 
Where it has gained the vantage-ground of a 
broken rock partially covered with rich, light 
soil, or taken its stand in an open glade, amid 
plants of humbler growth, it attains a consider- 
able size. Or, again, in an elevated situation, 
uncongenial to the rapid growth of its compa- 
nions, but well suitecl to its own wild tastes 



278 



THE MOUNTAIN ASH. 



and habits^ it will continue to flourish for a cen- 
tury or more. 

" The Mountain Ash 
No eye can overlook, when *mid a grove 
Of yet unfaded trees she lifts her head, 
Deck'd vrith autumnal berries, that outshine 
Spring's richest blossoms ; and ye may have marked 
By a brook- side or solitary tarn, 
How she her station doth adorn : the pool 
Glows at her feet, and all the gloomy rocks 
Are brightened round her." 

Wordsworth. 

The Mountain Ash is placed by most modern 
botanists in the same genus with the Apple and 
Pear^ the fruit of which it resembles in conforma- 
tion.^ Others assign it a place with the Medlar, 
{Mespilus) or make it and the group with which 
it is connected a distinct genus {Sorhus), The 
name Auciiparia (from auceps^ a fowler) indicates 
the use to which its berries are applied by bird- 
catchers in France and Germany, who bait their 
traps with them as a certain lure for thrushes 
and neld-fares. Its popular names are very nu- 
merous : Mountain Ash, the commonest, is far 
from correct, as it belongs to an entirely different 
tribe from the Ash, which tree it resembles only 
in its leaves ; Rowan, Roan, its common name 
in Scotland, and various other forms of the same 
word, occur in old authors. It is also called, 
Quick-Beam, Wild or Fowler's Service-tree : 
Service" appears to be a corruption of Sorbus, 
the ancient Latin name of an allied species, Pyrus 
sorhus, Witchen, AVicken, "Wiggen, &c. evidently 

* The Siherian Crab (Pyrus baccata) produces fruit which may 
be considered as a connecting link between the berrs' of the Moun- 
tain Ash and the Apple of Pyrus malus^ the common Apple-tree. 



THE MOUNTAIN ASH. 



279 



bear allusion to the power it was once supposed 
to possess of counteracting witchcraft. 

Lightfoot and Gilpin are both of opinion that 
the Mountain Ash was held in high estimation by 
the Druids. The former says, It may to this 
day be observed to grow more frequently than 
any other tree in the neighbourhood of those 
di^uidical circles of stones so often seen in the 
north of Britain ; and the superstitious still con- 
tinue to retain a great veneration for it, which 
was undoubtedly handed down to them from 
early antiquity. They believe that any small 
part of this tree, carried about them, will prove 
a sovereign charm against all the dire effects of 
enchantment and witchcraft. Their cattle, also, 
as well as themselves, are supposed to be pre- 
served by it from evil ; for the dairy -maid will 
not forget to drive them from the shealings, or 
summer pastures, with a rod of the Rowan-tree, 
which she carefully lays up over the door of 
the sheal-boothy or summer-house, and drives 
them home again with the same. In Strath- 
spey, they make, on the 1st of ^lay, a hoop with 
the vv'ood of this tree, and in the evening and 
morning cause the sheep and lambs to pass 
through it." 

In ancient days," says Gilpin, when super- 
stition held the place in society which dissipation 
and impiety now hold, the Mountain Ash was 
considered as an object of great veneration. Of- 
ten, at this day, a stump of it is found in some 
old burying-place, or near the circle of a Druid 
temple, whose rites it formerly invested with its 
sacred shade." The custom of planting it in 
burying-grounds appears to have been retained 



280 



THE MOUNTAIN ASH. 



after the introduction of Christianity; for Evehii 
mentions, that, in Wales, where this tree is 
reputed so sacred, there is not a churchyard with- 
out one of them planted in it, so, on a cer- 
tain day in the year, everybody religiously wears 
a cross made of the w^ood." In the Isle of Man, 
also, it is up to the present day invested by the 
superstitious with a sacred character. On Good 
Friday, when no iron of any kind must be put 
into the fire, and even the tongs are laid aside, 
lest any person should unfortunately forget the 
custom, and stir the fire with them, a stick of the 
Rowan-tree is used by w^ay of substitute.'^ 

The belief in the efiicacy of the Mountain Ash, 
as a preservative against witchcraft, has led some 
commentators on Shakspeare to substitute, for 
the puzzling expression in Macbeth," Aroint 
thee, witch!"' the words A Roan-tree, witch !" 
The passage being thus uttered, the mention of 
a tree so fatal to the power of the witch might 
naturally excite her acrimony against the per- 
son who applied the test. The authoress of 
Sylvan Sketches quotes a stanza from a very 
ancient song, which runs as follows : — 

" Their spells were vain ; the boj's returned 
To the queen in sorrowful mood, 
Crying, that ' witches have no power 
"Where there is Roan-tree wood.' " 

In remote districts of England the superstition 
has not even yet died away. Waterton, in his 
Essays on Natural History^'' relates an anec- 
dote which fell under his personal observation, 
of a countrpnan in Yorkshire, who cut a bun- 



* Train's Historical Account oftlie Isle of Man^ 1846. 



THE MOUNTAIN ASH. 



281 



die of WiggiUf and nailed the branches all up and 
down the cow-house/' in order to counteract the 
effect produced on his cow by the overlooking" 
of a supposed witch. 

It is not a little singular, that, in Kke manner 
as we saw (page 182) similar superstitious prac- 
tices holding in Ireland and the East with regard 
to the Hawthorn and a tree closely resembling 
it, so we find in India a tree bearing a strong 
resemblance to the Mountain Ash, to which the 
same superstition attaches. 

Bishop Heber, in the 18th chapter of his In- 
dian Journal^ gives the following account of this 
tree, and the superstition connected with it :— 

As I returned home, I passed a fine tree of the 
Mimosa, with leaves at a little distance, so much 
resembling those of the Mountain Ash, that I was 
for a moment deceived, and asked if it did not 
bring fruit ? They answered, no ; but it was a 
very noble tree, being called ' the Imperial tree,' 
for its excellent properties, — that it slept all 
night,* and wakened and was alive all day, with- 
drawing its leaves if any one attempted to touch 
them. Above all, however, it was useful as a 
preservative against magic ; a sprig worn in the 
turban or suspended over the bed was a perfect 
security against all spells, evil eye^ &c., inso- 
much that the most formidable wdzard would 
not, if he could help it, approach its shade. One, 
indeed, they said, who was very renowmed for his 

* Most plants of tiie Acacia tribe, which have compound leaves, 
like the Ash, fold the leaflets together during the night, thus pro- 
tecting their upper surfaces from the cold and damp. A like 
property resides in clover, and several other English plants of the 
same natural order. 



282 



THE MOUNTAIN ASH. 



power of killing plants, and drying up their sap 
with a look, had come to this very tree and gazed 
on it intently ; ^ but/ said the old man, who told 
me this, with an air of triumph, ^look as he 
might, he could do the tree no harm ; ' a fact of 
which I made no question. I was amused and 
surprised to find the superstition which, in Eng- 
land and Scotland, attaches to the Rowan-tree, 
here applied to a tree of nearly similar form. 
Which nation has been in this the imitator, or 
from what common centre are all these common 
notions derived ? " 

The Mountain Ash is found in a native state 
throughout the whole of Europe, and in several 
of the northern countries of Asia and North 
America. The parts of Great Britain where it 
attains its largest size are the western Highlands 
and the western coast of Scotland. On the hills 
of Cheshire and Derbyshire it does not often 
attain a great size : in such situations an entire 
tree, wdth roots, leaves, and flowers, is sometimes 
found not more than nine inches high. Ordina- 
rily it grows very rapidly during the first five years 
of its existence, and at the age of twenty years 
forms a tree of the same number of feet with a 
single erect stem and a bushy head. The branches 
are smooth, and vary in colour from grey to pur- 
plish-bromi. The buds, before their expansion 
in the beginning of April, are large and downy. 
The leaves consist of from seven to nine pairs of 
narrow, acute, notched leaflets, terminated by an 
odd one. These are somewhat downy underneath 
in their young state, but soon become quite smooth. 
The flowers are numerous, resembling in shape 
those of the Pear, but much smaller ; in odour. 



THE MOUNTAIN ASH. 



283 



those of the least fragrant varieties of Hawthorn. 
In early summer they are conspicuous from their 
number, and arrangement in large white clusters : 




FLOWERS OF THE MOUNTAIN ASH. 



when these are shed, the tree is still a pleasing 
object, from the brightness and elegant shape 
of its leaves. As autumn advances, it asserts 
its claims to be considered a fruit-tree, in ap- 



284 



THE MOUNTAIN ASH. 



pearance, if not for utility. Its flowers are tlien 
succeeded by numerous bunches of coral-red ber- 
ries^ wliicli^ until devoured by the Thrusli and 




FRUIT OF THE MOUNTAIN ASH. 

Storm-cock, or scattered by the equinoctial gales, 
infallibly distinguish it from every other tenant 
either of the wood or the park. In the Scot- 
tish Highlands, on some rocky mountain covered 



THE MOUNTAIN ASH. 



285 



with dark Pines and waving Birch, w^hich cast a 
solemn gloom over the lake below, a few Moun- 
tain Ashes joining in a clump, and mixing with 
them, have a fine effect. In summer the light 
green tint of their foliage, and in autumn the 
glowing berries which hang clustering upon them, 
contrast beautifully with the deeper green of the 
Pines ; and if they are happily blended, and not 
in too large a proportion, they add some of the 
most picturesque furniture with which the sides 
of those rugged mountains are invested."* 

A variety is cultivated w^hich has yellow ber- 
ries, and another with variegated leaves ; but 
neither of these, as is the case with many other 
treasured rarities, has anything beyond its rarity 
to recommend it. 

The berries, besides being applied to the use 
from which the tree derives its name, Bird- 
catcher's Service," are eaten in the extreme north 
of Europe as fruit, though not, one would sup- 
pose, until every other kind of attainable fruit 
is exhausted, for they are intensely acid, and 
possess a peculiar flavour, which makes them very 
unpalatable. In seasons of scarcity, it is said that 
they are sometimes dried and ground into flour. 

Some," says Evelyn, " highly commend the 
juice of the berries, which fermenting of itself, 
if well preserved, makes an excellent drink 
against the spleen and scurvy. Ale and beer 
brewed with these berries when ripe, is an in- 
comparable drink, familiar in "Wales." A be- 
verage resembling perry is still made from them 
in that country, and is much used by the poor. 
In Kamtschatka and in the Scottish Highlands 
* Gilpin. 



286 



THE MOUNTAIN ASH. 



an ardent spirit is distilled from tliem, which is 
said to have a fine flavour. 

As a timber-tree, the Mountain Ash does not 
attain a size which renders it available by the 
carpenter ; but its wood, being fine-grained, hard, 
and susceptible of a high polish, is used for 
smaller manufactures, principally in turnery. 
As coppice it may be applied to most of the uses 
of Ash, Hazel, &c, ; and the bark is employed by 
the tanner. In the days of archery, it ranked 
next to the Yew as a material for bows, and was 
considered sufficiently important to be mentioned 
in a statute of Henry VIII. 




THE WHITE-BEAM. 



Pyrus aria. 

The White-Beam* (or White-tree), though 
closely allied to the Mountain Ash, and conse- 
quently bearing a strong resemblance to it as to 
flower and fruit, is nevertheless very unlike it in 
general character and appearance. It is a native 
of the same countries, v^ith the exception of 
North America, preferring chalky or limestone 
soils, where it frequently attains the height of 
thirty or forty feet. The trunk is straight and 
smooth, and the young shoots are covered with 

* "Beam," Saxon for "tree." So, in German, Mehl-baimi" 
means literally " Meal-tree," from the remarkably white and mealy 
appearance of the under side of its leaves. 

U 



288 



THE WHITE-BEAM. 



a white mealy clown^ as are also the under sides 
of the leaves^ to such a degree as to give the tree 
its name. The flowers are larger than those of 
the Mountain Ash, and are succeeded by pale red 
berries, resembling in shape those of the Siberian 
Crab. Without being by any means common or 
well known, it occurs occasionally in various parts 
of England and Scotland. In the north of Devon 
I have seen it reaching a large size, and bearing 
abundance of fruit ; but vrhere the soil is not 
congenial, or the situation is confined, it scarcely 
merits the rank of a tree. The finest are said to 
grow near Blair, in Perthshire. 

The fruit is used for the same purpose as that 
of the Roan-tree, and, if kept till it begins to 
decay, is somewhat more palatable, for in this 
state, like the Medlar, it loses a great deal of 
its austerity. It is eagerly devoured by birds, 
and on this account is in France protected by 
law, our neighbours having anticipated us in the 
discovery, that the hostility of birds against in- 
sects more than compensates in its effects for the 
occasional depredations which the former commit 
in our orchards and gardens. The wood of the 
White-Beam is very heavy and of a close texture, 
and is much used, especially on the Continent, for 
the cogs of wheels in machinery. 



WILD SERVICE-TREE. 



Pyrus torminalis. 

This species differs from the last in ha^dng its 
dark, glossy leaves lobed very like those of the 
Maple, whence it is sometimes called " Maple- 
Service." The fruit, which is brown and dotted 
when ripe, and not much larger than that of the 
Hawthorn, begins to decay when the frost has 
touched it, and is then agreeably acid and whole- 
some. Its geographical distribution is nearly the 
same with the White-Beam ; but it is not found 



290 



WILD SERVICE-TREE. 



in Scotland or Ireland. It occurs occasionally in 
Cornwall as a hedge-bush, and in some other of 
the southern countries is said to attain the height 
of fifty feet ; but it is nowhere common. 

The True Service-tree" {Pyrus sorhus) is a 
doubtful native of Britain ; but this is rarely met 
with even in a cultivated state, and requires no 
further mention. 

The name " Service-tree " is often applied in- 
discriminately to all the above species of Pyrus, 
but belongs more particularly to the last. 



THE PEAR. 



Pyrus communis. 



Among the many industrial occupations which 
require the actual and continuous labour of the 
body, there is only one which is, from mere 
choice, extensively pursued by persons whose 
means and station in society exempt them from the 
necessity of manual labour ; and that is the occupa- 
tion of the gardener. We meet occasionally with 
persons in the higher walks of life, whose taste for 
mechanism takes them away in their leisure hours 
to active employment at the turning-lathe gr the 
carpenter's bench ; but this is so rarely the case, 
that any one who devotes himself to these pursuits 
must expect to incur the charge of singularity, or, 
at least, to be subject to remark among his neigh- 
bours. But, however exalted may be the rank 
of an individual who personally superintends, or 
engages in, the manual labour of rearing flowers 
or fruits, there are so many others who participate 
in the same tastes, that no one thinks it worth 
while to notice the fact. Nor does difference of 
station alter the case ; for how often do we see 
the humblest artisan, when his daily toil is ended, 
and his frame, one would suppose, exhausted by 
previous exertion, stealing from the brief period 
of time allowed for refreshment and repose a 



292 



THE PEAR» 



large proportion to be devoted to his few square 
yards of garden ground ! The very change of 
labour seems to be his best restorative. He bends 
over his flowers and vegetables^ and his work is 
now his recreation. Or^ if debarred from renew- 
ing his toil in the open air, he expends his labour 
of love on a few cherished auriculas or carnations, 
and brings them to such perfection, that, while 
for their beauty and rarity they might vie with 
the costliest produce of his wealthy neighbour's 
hot-house, they impart to his homely cottage an 
air of elegance, which, if it were attached to ar- 
ticles of furniture or clothing, would be far above 
the station of the occupant ; but, associated with 
this pursuit, tends to elevate the tone both of the 
dwelling and its inhabitants. 

So common is this taste, that it excites little or 
no notice ; and it seems so natural, that no one 
thinks of trying to account for its existence. It 
belongs to no particular age or climate, nor does 
it arise from any peculiar constitution of society ; 
for even in so remote a country as China, and 
one the daily customs of whose inhabitants difl'er 
so widely from our own, the same fondness for 
the cultivation of fruits and flowers has existed 
for ages ; and one of the most elegant and per- 
fect poems of antiquity, the Georgics of Virgil, 
is devoted to the same and kindred subjects. The 
most remote history, sacred and profane, certifies 
the prevalence of the same taste, so that there 
can be little doubt of its existence in all ages and 
climes. 

But whence did it originate ? How comes it, 
that men of all nations take delight in an oc- 
cupation so laborious as that of the cultivation of 



THE PEAR. 



293 



the soil ? that civilized man, in all other cases so 
anxious to spare himself labour, considers this 
particular employment his privilege and relaxa- 
tion ? that the rude Indian, when torn from the 
natural garden of his forests and prairies, lan- 
guishes and dies ? 

It is partly to be accounted for by the fact, 
that, in the operations of organized life, such as 
the unfolding of a flower, the ripening of a fruit, 
the v/ithering of a leaf, the image of Nature pre- 
sents itself most vividly to the soul ; yet not 
wholly on this ground, for the argument would 
apply as strongly to the successive developments 
of animal life. We must therefore seek for a yet 
deeper reason, and that is supplied to us from the 
pages of Inspiration. 

It was in a garden planted by the hand of God 
that man in his state of innocence first held in- 
tercourse with his Creator, and passed the only 
days of perfect happiness which man has spent on 
earth. After the fall he was sent forth to till 
the ground from whence he was taken," and, in 
the sweat of his face," was sentenced to eat the 
produce of the soil. Yet, condemned to a life of 
toil as he thus was, it by no means follows that 
his labour was to be necessarily associated through- 
out with pain and suflering. A certain amount of 
anxiety and uncertainty was entailed on him, that 
he might not lose sight of his dependence on 
God, Who giveth the increase ; but there was a 
reaping in joy, and a bringing home of sheaves 
with rejoicing, as well as a sowing in tears. In 
short, the labour of tilling the field has, by the 
Divine appointment, been from the beginning 
one which a faithful industry and a contented 



294 THE PEAR. 

trustfulness liave sweetened and sanctified. As 
mankind multiplied, and a changed system of 
society gave rise to nevr vrants and new occupa- 
tions^ tliougli tliey too were liglitened and cheered 
by the solaces of hope and honesty, yet to his 
original employment man returns with an instinc- 
tive love, indicating its origin. 

*• God, the ti'st garden made ; the first city, Cain." 

A warning against remission of industry was 
furnished by the fact, that to whatever degree 
plants may have been improved by cultivation, 
immediately, on being neglected, they exhibit a 
strong tendency to retui^n to their original wild 
state : and a further incitement to industry was 
aftbrded, by the discovery, that, although the 
mystery of creative power was placed out of reach, 
nay, out of sight, yet man was permitted, within 
limits, to bend the laws of Nature to his will, 
and by skill and care, ingenuity and patience, to 
multiply new forms of existing plants to an in- 
definite extent. 

By reference to these causes, principally, we are 
to account for the production of the countless 
varieties of flowers and fruits v^ith which our 
gardens and orchards are filled, — varieties some- 
time so unlike any known plants grovving in a 
wild state, that it is hard to say from what stock 
they were originally derived. Pre-eminent amons: 
these, both for number and diversity of characters 
stand the two trees of which we are now about to 
treat. 

The Pear-tree, in its wild state, varies con- 
siderably in difterent countries, both in its mode 
of growth, and in the shape, size, and pubescence 



THE PEAR. 



295 



of its leaves. Some of these are probably dis- 
tinct species, and inhabit most parts of Europe 
and Asia ; but, as we have only to do with the 
British form of the tree, it is unnecessary to pur- 




FLOV/ER OF PEAR-TREE. 

sue this subject. It is found in most counties of 
England, growing in woods and hedges. Its 
outline, when it stands alone, is pyramidal : the 
branches are at first erect, then curved down- 
wards and pendulous ; in a truly wild state. 



296 



THE PEAR. 



tliorny. The young leaves are slightly downy 
beneath, but, when mature, are quite smooth on 
both sides. When it is cultivated, the thorns on 
the branches disappear, as in the Plum. The 
flowers grow in clusters, and are large and of a 
pure white. The fruit is much smaller than that 
of any of the cultivated varieties, hard, austere, 
and unfit to eat ; its only use is to mix with cul- 
tivated sorts in making perry. The wood was 
formerly sought after for wood-engraving, but is 
only adapted to coarse designs : it is also some- 
times dyed black, in imitation of ebony. 

For usefulness as a fruit-tree, the Pear is ri- 
valled only by the Apple, — furnishing abundance 
of fruit, which is valuable in its fresh state, as w^ell 
as for baking and preserving. Many sorts were 
well known to the Greeks and Romans ; Pliny 
enumerates thirty-two. It was cultivated in Eng- 
land at a very early period. Chaucer makes men- 
tion of it; and in an account-book of Henry VIII. 
there are the following charges, among others: — 

£ s, d. 

" For medlars and wardens* . . .034 

Item^ to a woman who gaff the Kyng peres . 0 0 2 " 

In Gerard's time, threescore sundrie sorts of 
pears, and those exceeding good," were growing 
in one garden ; and of late years so much atten- 
tion has been paid to the multiplying of sorts, 
that the Horticultural Society's list for 1831 
enumerates 677 named varieties. 

The Pear-tree is long-lived, much more so in 
its cultivated than in its wild state ; and its pro- 

* " Wardens" were so called from their property of keeping : 
" peres" were probably some common kind of pear. 



THE PEAR. 



297 



ductiveness increases with its age. Dr. Neile 
mentions a number of very ancient Pear-trees 
standing in the neighbourhood of Jedburgh Ab- 
bey, and in fields which are known to have been 
formerly the gardens of religious houses in Scot- 
land which were destroyed at the Reformation. 
Such trees are, for the most part, in good health, 
and are abundant bearers ; and, as some of them 
were probably planted when the abbeys were 
built, they must be from 500 to 600 years old. 

The most remarkable Pear-tree in England 
stands on the glebe of the parish of Holme Lacy, 
in Herefordshire. When the branches of this 
tree, in its original state, became long and heavy, 
their extremities drooped till they reached the 
ground. They then took root ; each branch be- 
came a new tree, and in its turn produced others 
in the same way. Eventually it extended itself 
until it covered more than an acre of ground, and 
would probably have reached much further if it 
had been suffered to do so. It is stated in the 
church register, that, the great natural curiosity, 
the great Pear-tree upon the glebe, adjoining to 
the vicarage-house, produced this year (1776), 
fourteen hogsheads of perry, each hogshead con- 
taining one hundred gallons." Though now 
much reduced in size, it is still healthy and vigor- 
ous, and generally produces from two to five 
hogsheads. The liquor is not of a good quality, 
being very strong and heating. An idea of the 
superior size of this tree, w^hen in its prime, over 
others of the same kind, may be formed from the 
fact, that in the same county, an acre of ground 
is usually planted with thirty trees, which, in a 
good soil, produce annually, when full grown, 



298 



THE PEAR. 




twenty gallons of perry each. So large a quan- 
tity as a hogshead from one tree is very unusual. 
The sorts principally used for making perry are 
such as have an austere juice. 

The Pear is hable to be infested by several de- 
structive insects, which prey either on the flower, 

fruit, leaf, or vrood. 
The most remarkable of 
these is the Paradoxical 
Pear -fly {Psiliis boscii). 
This is a small black 
fly, scarcely a line long, 
furnished with a singu- 
— ^ lar excrescence or horn 

PARADOXICAL PEAR-FLY. ^^^^^J'S ^Ol^^^ back, 

which the insect keeps 
depressed close to the body, except when laying- 
its eggs. These it deposits, in spring, in the 
opening blossoms of the Pear, to the number of 
six or seven. In a few days the larvje escape 
from the egg and take refuge in the core of the 
young fruit, which, as if stimulated to unnatural 
exertion, increases rapidly in size, and soon out- 
strips the other pears, losing its bright green 
colour as it grows. It subsequently falls to the 
ground, when the larva escapes, buries itself in 
the ground, and remains there until it assumes 
the perfect state. The numbers of these insects 
may be sensibly diminished by collecting all the 
diseased fruits before they fall from the tree, and 
destroying them. Some entomologists are of 
opinion that this fly does not lay its eggs in the 
blossom of the Pear, but selects the fruit which 
is infested by the larvae of another insect, the 
Black Gallmidge (Cecidomyia nigra)^ and deposits 



THE PEAR. 



299 



them in their bodies, just as the Ichneumon-fly 
lays its eggs in the larvae of the Cynips quercus- 
folii (page 42). In either case the remedy is the 
same. If a sharp frost sets in and destroys the 
blossom, these insects do not abound for some 
years. 

A parasitic fungus {CEcidium cancellatum) 
sometimes attacks the leaves of the Pear and 




(ECIDIUIM CANCELLATUM. 



commits great ravages. It first appears in the 
form of bunches of minute hairs on the veins of 
the leaves, always on the under side, and accom- 
panied by a dingy-red spot above. "When full 
grown, each spot consists of a number of bag- 
like excrescences, a quarter of an inch long, filled 
with seeds. Every leaf which is attacked dies ; 
and, as the parasite when it does appear is very 



300 



THE PEAR. 



abundant, not only is the crop of fruit for the 
year deteriorated or totally destroyed, but the 
tree itself eventually perishes. Fortunately the 
disease is rare ; as, when it appears in a garden, 
it defies all attempts to check it. A writer in the 
Gardener s Magazine, (vol. ix. 333) states that 
on its first appearance it attacked only three trees 
in his garden ; but the number gradually in- 
creased, until seventy, all in fact that stood in 
that part of the garden, had fallen victims. 



THE APPLE. 



Pyrus malus. 

The Apple-tree being an undoubted native 
of Great Britain, demands to be noticed among 
our Forest Trees ; though, from having been so 
long and so extensively cultivated, it is much 
better known as a tenant of the orchard than 
of the forest. Nevertheless, it is frequently to 
be met with in a perfectly wild state, possessing 
little or no value for its fruit, but forming in 
spring, with its rosy and fragrant buds, a beau- 
tiful ornament either to the woodland or the 
hedgerow. 

It diifers materially from the Pear-tree in 
shape, and is characterized by its crooked and 
knotty branches, which, if the tree is growing 
in an open space, spread equally on all sides, 
and give to it an irregularly hemispherical form. 
The leaves are generally wider in proportion 
to. their length than those of the Pear, less 
pointed, and slightly dovviiy beneath. The fruit 
may readily be distinguished by having its base, 
at the insertion of the stem, concave ; that of 
the Pear being always convex. The branches 
are, both in the wild and cultivated states, des- 
titute of thorns. It grows wild in most coun- 
tries of Europe, and in western Asia, China^ 
and Japan. 



302 THE APPLE. 

Improved varieties of tlie Apple appear to have 
been in cultivation from a very remote period. 
To the Greeks and Romans it was well known. 




BLOSSOM OF THE APPLE-TREE. 

Mention of it occurs also in the Septuagint^ as 
w^ell as in the authorized version of the Holy 
Bible ; but the fruit there alluded to is now 
thought, and with great propriety, to be the 



THE APPLE. 



303 



Citron, which accords well with the description 
given in the Sacred VolumCj and arrives at great 
perfection in Syria, whereas the Apple does not. 
The absurd legend, that the fruit of the forbid- 
den tree was an Apple, has probably given rise 
to the numerous superstitions respecting this 
tree, which appear under various disguises in the 
mythology of the Greeks* and Druids. The 
latter also looked on it with great veneration, 
from its being frequently clothed with Mistletoe. 
In certain parts of this country superstitious 
observances yet linger, such as drinking health 
to the trees on Christmas and Epiphany eves, 
saluting them by thro\^dng roasted crabs or toast 
from the wassail-bowl to their roots, dancing 
and singing round them, lighting fires, &c. All 
these ceremonies are supposed to render the trees 
productive for the coming season. 

I once had occasion to pass the night preceding 
Twelfth-Day at a lone farm-house on the borders 
of Dartmoor, in Devonshire, and was somewhat 
alarmed at hearing, very late at night, the re- 
peated discharge of fire-arms in the immediate 
vicinity of the house. On my inquiring in the 
morning as to what was the cause of the un- 
seasonable noise, I was told that the farm-men 
were firing at the Apple-trees in the orchard, in 
order that the trees might bear a good crop next 
season. 

If these observances tended in the least degree 
to confer a benefit on the trees, they would not 
be mis-spent, for of all the fruit-trees cultivated 
in this country, the Apple is by far the most 

* The faille of tlie dragon which guarded the golden apples in the 
Garden of the Hesperides is probably derived from this source. 

X 



304 



THE APPLE. 



valuable, producing, with very little pains on 
the part of the proprietor, abundance of excel- 
lent fruit, fit either for the dessert, for dressing, 
or for making cider. To prove in what estima- 
tion it is held among gardeners, who resort to 
more sensible means for improving their trees 
than those above mentioned, it is only necessary 
to state that no less than 1400 named sorts, 
all differing from each other in shape, size, 
colour, flavour, or season of ripening, are enume- 
rated in the Horticultural Society's Catalogue 
for 1831. All of these are cultivated in the 
Society's gardens, and new varieties are con- 
stantly being added. 

The fruit of the wild Apple is called a crab, 
the sourness of which has passed into a proverb. 
The juice of crabs, called verjuice, is used to 
cure sprains and scalds, being often kept by 
good housewives in the country for that pur- 
pose. Isaac Walton, in his Complete Angler, 
mentions it as being an ingredient in the rustic 
delicacy, syllabub. When next you come this 
way, if you will but speak the word, I will make 
you a good syllabub of new verjuice, and then 
you may sit down in a hay-cock and eat it." 
The old-fashioned ointment called pomatum was 
made with the pulp of Apples {poma), lard, and 
rose-water. i 

Though the Crab is the only Apple indigenous 
to Britain, several of the best sorts were first 
raised in this country. The Cornish Gilliflower 
is pronounced by Lindley the best eating apple ; 
the Golden Pippin, so called from the small 
spots or pips that usually appear on the sides of i 
these apples, is a native of Sussex ; the Ribs ton 



THE APPLE. 



305 



Pippin was raised at Ribston Park^ Yorkshire, 
from a pippin brought from Prance. The ori- 
ginal tree, which produced this last sort, was 
standing in 1831, and probably still remains. 
Philips, who published his poem, Cider," in 
1706, enumerates many sorts, some of which are 
still in cultivation ; others have been superseded 
by more valuable kinds, or at least their names 
are rarely heard. Among these last is — 

" John- Apple, whose wither'd rind, intrencht 

With many a furrow, aptly represents 
Decrepit age," 

and is no doubt the " Apple- John " of Shak- 
speare. 

The Apple-tree is not remarkable for size or 
longevity, but is stated to be larger and more 
productive in North America than in Europe. 

Darwin relates that in South America the 
Apple-tree attains great perfection. The town 
of Valdivia," he says, is situated on the low 
banks of a river, and is so completely buried in a 
wood of Apple-trees, that the streets are merely 
paths in an orchard. I have never seen any coun- 
try where Apple-trees appeared to thrive so well 
as in this damp part of South America. On the 
borders of the roads there were many young trees 
evidently self-sown. In Chiloe the inhabitants 
possess a marvellously short method of making an 
orchard. At the lowest part of almost every 
branch, small conical, brown, wrinkled points 
project ; these are always ready to change into 
roots, as may sometimes be seen where any mud 
has been accidentally splashed against the tree. 
A branch as thick as a man's thigh is chosen in 



306 



THE APPLE. 



early spring, and is cut off just beneath a group 
of these points, all the smaller branches are 
lopped off, and it is then placed about two feet 
deep in the ground. During the ensuing summer 
the stump thro\ys out long shoots, and sometimes 
even bears fruit. I was shown one which had 
produced as many as twenty-three apples, but 
this was thought very unusual. In the third 
season the stump is changed (as I have myself 
seen) into a well-wooded tree, loaded with fruit. 
An old man near Valdivia illustrated his motto, 
^ Necessity is the mother of invention,' by giving 
an account of the several useful things he manu- 
factured from his apples. After making cider 
and likewise wine, he extracted from the refuse 
a white and purely flavoured spirit ; by another 
process he procured a sweet treacle, or, as he 
called it, honey. His children and pigs seemed 
almost to live, during this season of the year, in 
his orchard." 

It is somewhat singular that a very similar 
method of propagating Apple-trees is practised 
in so remote a country as China. The thick 
branch of a tree, when in full flower, is deprived 
of a ring of bark, and the place covered round 
with a lump of rich loam. This is kept moist 
by water, allowed to drip from a horn suspended 
above ; and when the roots have pushed into 
the loam, which is usually the case vv'hen the 
fruit is nearly ripe, the branch is cut off and 
planted in a pot. Dwarf-trees, laden v/ith fruit, 
are favourite ornaments among the Chinese. 
On the occasion of certain festivals, they are 
exposed on stands before the houses, along with 
grotesque flgures of porcelain and pasteboard, . 



THE APPLE. 



307 



which are made to perform a variety of absurd 
movements, by the agency of mice confined with- 
in them. Besides the Apple, the Orange and 
other kinds of fruit-trees are propagated in this 
way ; and fine, that is, stunted and gnarled 
specimens fetch a high price. They are said to 
live from two to three hundred years, never much 
exceeding a foot in height, and producing annu- 
ally from twenty to thirty large Apples. Several 
forest trees are treated in the same manner, par- 
ticularly the Elm. 

There formerly grev/, on the eastern roof of 
the old Abbey Church of Romsey, Hampshire, 
a tree w^hich regularly produced two kinds of 
Apples. How it came to grow in this place is 
not known. About a dozen years since, it being 
found that its roots were penetrating the stone- 
work, and consequently were materially injuring 
the roof, it was destroyed. 

The insects which select the Apple-tree for 
the food of themselves and their young are ex- 
ceedingly numerous. Some of these, Loopers 
(so called from their bringing forward their hind- 
most pair of feet in vralking till they are close to 
the fore-feet, and so making with their bodies a 
bow or loop), lay their eggs on the twigs nearest 
to the summit of the tree, to which they cement 
them so firmly, that no amount of rain washes 
them off", nor does the severest winter destroy 
their vitality. As soon as the fiower and leaf- 
buds begin to expand, the young caterpillars 
burst from their shells, and commence the work 
of destruction, by eating their way into the buds, 
where they find both shelter and sustenance. 
They prefer at first the delicate food aflforded by 



308 



THE APPLE. 



the tender unfolded petals and embrj'o fruit: 
but, as tliis is soon exhausted, extend tbeii' 
ravages to the leaves, the whole of the succulent 
part of which they demolish, and convert the 
withering skeletons and stems into habitations. 
When full grown, they let themselves down to 
the ground by a thread, which they spin from 
their mouths, and having buried themselves in 
the soil, there await theii' transformation. 

One species of moth, the small Ermine Moth 
{Tinea padello), lays its eggs late in the summer 
on the small twigs, and cements 
them firmly to the tree, covering 
them with a strong orluten. The 
eggs are hatched the same year, 
but the grubs remain under cover 
during the winter. In the spring they issue 
forth with appetites sharpened by their long 
abstinence, and immediately eat their way into 
the substance of the young leaves, mining 
their course between the upper and under cu- 
ticle. As soon as they have outgrown the 
dimensions of their dwelling, they appear al- 
most simultaneously on the outside of the leaves, 
and feed together in company under the pro- 
tection of a common web. till the grub state 
of their existence is about to terminate, 
when they draw near together ; each spins for 
itself a white cocoon, and is converted into a 
chrysalis. 

]\Iany of these caterpillars become the prey 
of the Titmouse and various other small birds, 
wliich require a large supply of food for their 
young at the season when the caterpillars are 
most abundant. Ants also prey on them, and 




THE APPLE. 



309 



Ichneumon flies contribute greatly towards check- 
ing their increase by laying their eggs in their 
bodies. 




GRUBS OF ER3IIXE MOTH. 

Several kinds of beetles, either in their larva 
or perfect state, attack the leaf, bark, or wood 
of the Apple. 

^' Then the grub, 
Oft unobserved, hiA-ades the vital core, 
Pernicious tenant, and her secret cave 
Enlarges hourly, preying on the pulp 
Ceaseless." 

This grub is produced either from the egg of the 
Codlin Moth {Tortrix pomonand) or, more rarely, 
from that of the Apple- vVeevil {Curculio Bacchus). 
The moth lays one of its eggs in the eye of an 



310 



THE APPLE. 



apple when the fruit is well set. As soon as the 
egg is hatched, the caterpillar eats its way into 




the apple, avoiding the vital 
part or core, until nearly 
full grown ; it then at- 
tacks the pips, and by the 
time that these are con- 



coDLiN MOTH. sumed, the apple falls to 

the ground, when the insect escapes, climbs up 
the stem of a neighbouring tree, and excavates 
for itself a dwelling in the bark, where it spins 
a white cocoon, and is converted into a pupa or 
chrysalis. The habits of the weevil-grub are 
nearly the same, except that it creeps into the 
ground to await its transformation. 

The destructive insect called American blight 
(for no other reason, one would suppose, than 
that it has been long the custom to ascribe the 
origin of most strange-looking things to the New 
World) is one of the greatest enemies of the 
Apple-tree. It is easily distinguished by its 
white cottony appendage, which is said to serve 
the double purpose of wafting the young insect 
through the air, when about to found a new 
colony, and of protecting it from the cold when 
established in its new dwelling. It injures the 
tree, and, if not checked, finally kills it, by suck- 
ing its juices tlu'ough the bark. ]Many methods 
of destroying it have been suggested, among 
which, one of the simplest is to brush over every 
infected part with size. But even this remedy 
requires frequent repetition, as the insect infests 
even those parts of the tree which are beneath the 
ground. The subject is treated at length in the 
Gardener's Magazine, vol. ix. p. 334. 



THE APPLE. 



311 



The Apple-tree, both in its wild and cultivated 
state, is hable to be infested with the Mistletoe, 
which frequently does great injury. 

In the west of England this parasite is but little 
known ; but the Apple-trees, especially in the 
vicinity of the sea, are often so thickly invested 
\dth lichens, that the bark is scarcely to be dis- 
tinguished, except on the very young shoots. 
Most of them are of a pale ashen-grey or whitish 
tint ; one, however, which occurs but rarely in 
the eastern counties, Borrera Jlavicans, is very 
conspicuous for its tangled golden tufts, which 
in winter, when the tree is divested of foliage, 
are very ornamental. 

I must not omit to mention that the Mistletoe 
Thrush, or Storm-cock, which at most seasons 
is one of our wildest birds, in spring deserts its 
favourite tree, the Mountain Ash, and resorts to 
the neighbourhood of human dwellings. There 
it selects, as a fit place for rearing its young, 
an Apple-tree close to the house, choosing the 
angle between the trunk and one of the principal 
branches. It builds its nest of materials which 
closely resemble the bark of the tree, and, though 
exceedingly shy at other seasons, now sits so 
closely, that one may advance to within a few 
yards of the nest Vvdthout being noticed. The 
beautiful copper-coloured Chafiinch also prefers 
to build her elec^ant nest amono' the twig-s of the 
Apple-tree, and decorates it in the neatest man- 
ner with the lichens which infest the tree she has 
selected. 



THE FUKLEY BEECHES. 



THE BEECH. 



Fagus sylvatica. 

Katura I o rde r — Azvi en tacejl. 
CI a ss — ]\I 0 N (EC I A . Orde r — P o L Y a N D Ri a . 

The Beech, tliougli one of our most abundant 
forest trees, grooving spontaneously in the wildest 
parts of many of the counties of England, per- 
fecting its seed freely, and sustaining a vigorous 
growth (which proves that the soil and climate 
of the country are perfectly congenial to it), is 
nevertheless declared by many writers to be a 
doubtful native. This opinion they justify on 
the ground that Julius C^sar, in his account of 
his invasion of Britain, states that timber of 
every kind wliich is found in Gaul also grovrs in 
Britain, except the Beech and the Silver Fir."* 
The fact is, that by far too much importance is 
attached to this passage. C^sar penetrated but 
a very little way into Britain, staid there but a 
very short time, and rarely ventured to any great 
distance from the camp ; consequently he saw 
very little of the country. There can be no 
doubt, however, that he was anxious to convey 
to his countrymen as favourable an impression 
as possible of his achievements ; so that, the 

* " Materia ciijusqne generis, ut in Gallia est, prseter Fagum et 
Abietem." {Ccesar de Bel. Gal.) 



314 



THE BEECH. 



success of his military operations being slight, he 
would very willingly have them infer, from the 
minuteness with which he particularised the pro- 
duce of the island, that he had penetrated far into 
the country, but had met with no adventures 
worth recording. This seems the readiest way 
of meetino' the diihcultv. Other writers suo-o-est 
that some other tree than the Beech may be 
identical with the Fagus of Csesar, and have en- 
deavoured to show that he meant the Chestnut. 
But that this opinion is erroneous, will appear 
from the foUo^^ing consideration. 

Tire Roman poets make frequent mention of 
the tree {Fagus) which Caesar declares to be not 
a native of Britain.^ They describe it as being 
lofty, furnished with wide-spreading branches, 
casting a dense shade, loving the hill side, at- 
taining a great age, and furnished with so smooth 
a bark, that rustics selected it to carve their 
names on, and even for the reception of their 
poetical effusions. f Virgil states that it was 

* The (pyjyo: (pJiepos) of Theophrastus does not appear to be the 
same as the Fagus of the Romans, though both names have the same 
etymology, from (py.yco (pJiaao), to eat. Our Beech is most probably 
the tree which that author calls cclylXoo'^ {cegilops)^ and describes as 
" a mast-bearing tree, fui'nished with a very straight trunk, xevy 
lofty, having a smoother bark than any of the other mast-bearing 
trees, and growing but sparingly in enclosed country."' (Theophras- 
Tus de Flantis, lib. ii.) The :p'/;yo; of Theophrastus was probably the 
^Escuh/s of the Romans. 

t Among the many anecdotes connected with the history of 
printing, which have come down to us, that related by Hadrian 
Junius deseiwes to be noticed in this place. About the year 1441, 
Lawrence Koster, a citizen of Haarlem, walking in a suburban 
grove, began hrst to fashion Beech-bark into letters, which being im- 
pressed upon paper, reversed in the manner of a seal, produced one 
verse, then another, as his fancy pleased, to be for copies to the chil-- 
dren of his son-in-law."' This hint he subisequently improA'ed upon, 



THE BEECH. 



315 



grafted on tlie Chestnut, and that its wood was 
converted into bowls, a use which is alluded to 
by other poets. No other tree with which we 
are acquainted accords with this description. But 
this is not all, for Pliny, the Latin naturalist, 
gives an accurate description of the Fagus, which 
cannot fail to identify it with our Beech, Of 
the various kinds of mast, that of the Fagus is 
the sweetest, on which Cornelius Alexander says, 
that some men, who were besieged in the town 
of Chios, lived for some time. It resembles a 
nut, and is enclosed in a triangular rind. The 
leaf is thin and exceedingly smooth, shaped like 
the Poplar, decaying, after it has fallen to the 
ground, long before any of the other mast-bear- 
ing trees. The mast is much eaten by mice, 
which abound at the season of its ripening ; it 
also entices dormice, and is much sought after 
by thrushes. Hogs fattened on it are lively, and 
their flesh is digestible, light, and wholesome. 
The bark is used for making baskets and panniers, 
but the timiber is not durable." 

The above description, though wanting the pre- 
cision of modern science, is sufficiently conclusive 
that the Fagus of Italy is the Beech of Great 
Britain, for the account is not true of any other 
known tree. The only statement which demands 
further notice is that of Virgil, that the Beech 
is often grafted on the Castanea or Chestnut. 

and finally invented blocks of lead and tin, and printed books. 
Among his workmen was John Faust, who, having been initiated 
in the art, although sworn to secrecy, decamped, carrying with him 
his master's stock in trade, and set up as a printer on his o^^ti ac- 
count at IMayence. I should add, that, although many literary men 
have credited this account, it bears, on close examination, internal 
evidence of being a fabrication, either of Hadrian or his informant. 



316 



THE BEECH. 



This assertion has appeared so strange and unac- 
countable to commentators, that some have got 
rid of the difficulty at once by supposing that 
the passage is corrupt^ and that Virgil meant 
to say, the Chestnut is often grafted on the 
Beech:" others have jumped to an e equally un- 
warrantable conclusion, that the Beech was called 
by the Romans Castanea," and the Chestnut 
^'Fagus;'' and that, accordingly, C^sar asserted 
that the Chestnut did not grow in Britain. This 
ingenious explanation is so satisfactory, that it 
might be adopted at once, if sufficient evidence of 
the fact could be adduced. But tliis is not the 
case, for Pliny's description of the Castanea agrees 
as exactly with the Chestnut, as that of the 
Fagus does with the Beech. The fruit of the 
Castanea,"' he says, we call also a nut, though 
it approaches nearer in character to mast. It is 
protected by a case beset ^vith strong prickles. 
It is sirange that we hold as of no value a fruit 
which Nature has so carefully guarded from in- 
jury. As many as three nuts frequently grow 
together in one case. The proper rind of the 
nut is tough, and with hi this is a thin skin closely 
attached to the substance of the nut, as in the 
walnut, which, unless it be removed, spoils the 
flavour of the fruit. The best way of preparing 
them for food is by roasting. They are some- 
times ground into meal, svhich is converted by 
women into a wreched substitute for bread, and 
eaten during their religious fasts." 

From a comparison of these passages, it will 
plainly appear that the tree which we call Beech 
was undoubtedly the Fagus of the Romans, and 
the Chestnut, Castanea. Xor will there be any 



THE BEECH. 



317 



difficulty in discovering the propriety of grafting 
the Beech on the Chestnut, the oily though 
smaller nut of the former being considered by 
the ancients much more valuable than the fari- 
naceous nut of the latter. 

On the whole, therefore the readiest solution 
of the difficulty is, that C^sar did not penetrate 
into any part of the island where Beeches w^ere 
abundant, and that the woods, to which he tells 
us that the Britons retired to escape from their 
invaders, were composed of trees which admitted 
a more luxuriant growth of underwood than this 
unsociable tree ever allow^s. 

Loudon states that it is a native of the tempe- 
rate parts of Europe, from the south of Norway 
to the Mediterranean Sea, and from England to 
Constantinople. It is also found in Palestine, 
Asia Minor and other parts of Asia. In Swit- 
zerland it occupies the south sides of the moun- 
tains which have their north sides clothed with 
the Silver Fir. In England it grows most luxuri- 
antly and in the greatest abundance in the chalk 
districts, forming extensive forests of great mag- 
nificence and beauty. It is not indigenous to 
Scotland or Ireland. It is the national tree of 
Denmark, and in the neighbourhood of Elsinore 
flourishes in superlative vigour. 

In North America, a species very similar to 
the Beech of Europe forms extensive woods in 
the middle and western states. In South Ame- 
rica its place is supplied by other species, Fagus 
hetulo'ides and F, antarctica^ though only in the 
extreme south. In Tierra del Fuego, the former 
frequently measures as much as thirteen feet in 
circumference. Captain King mentions one which 



318 



THE BEECH. 



was seven feet in diameter at seventeen feet above 
the roots. Darwin thus describes his attempt to 
penetrate a Beech forest in that country : — 
Finding it nearly hopeless to push my way 
through the wood, I followed the course of a 
mountain torrent. At first from the w^ater-falls 
and number of dead trees, I could hardly cravvd 
along ; but the bed of the stream soon became a 
little more open, from the floods ha\dng swept 
the sides. I continued slowly to advance for an 
hour along the broken and rocky banks, and was 
amply repaid by the grandeur of the scene. 
The gloomy depth of the rapine v\'ell accorded 
with the universal signs of violence. On every 
side were lying irregular masses of rock and 
torn-up trees : other trees, though still erect, 
were decayed to the heart, and ready to fall. 
The entangled mass of the thriving and the 
fallen reminded me of the forests within the 
tropics : yet there was a difference ; for in those 
still solitudes Death, instead of Life, seemed the 
predominant spirit. I followed a watercourse till 
I came to a spot where a great slip had cleared 
a straight space down the mountain side. By 
this road I ascended to a considerable elevation, 
and obtained a good view of the surrounding 
woods. The trees all belong to one kind^ the 
Fagus letido'ides, (the Birch-like Beech,) for the 
number of the other species of Fagus and of 
the Winter's Bark'^ is quite inconsiderable. This 
Beech keeps its leaves throughout the year ; 
but its foliage is of a peculiar brownish-green co- 

^ This tree, Drimys Winieri.^ is closeh' allied to the genus Magno- 
lia, and furnishes the aromatic Winter's Bark, which is remarkable ' 
for its resemhlance to that of Cinnamon. 



THE BEECH. 



319 



lour, with, a tinge of yellow. As the whole land- 
scape is thus coloured, it has a sombre, dull ap- 
pearance, nor is it often enlivened by the rays of 
the sun." On another occasion, when he accom- 
panied the commander of the expedition to explore 
the Beagle Channel, the view," he says, was 
very remarkable. Looking towards either hand, 
no object intercepted the vanishing points of this 
long canal between the mountains. The circum- 
stance of its being an arm of the sea was render- 
ed very evident, by several huge whales spouting 
in various directions. On one occasion I saw two 
of these monsters, probably male and female, 
slowly swimming one after the other, within less 
than a stone's throw of the shore over which the 
Beech-tree extended its branches."* 

A species of Beech which grows at Van Die- 
men's Land attains a height much greater than 
that of any European tree. 

The Beech was particularly admired by the 
ancients, who luxuriated in the lofty canopy 
afforded by its dense foliage. In modern times, 
its claims to the possession of picturesque beauty 
have been disputed on high authority, for while 
Gilbert White speaks most warmly in its praise, 
Gilpin expresses a very different opinion. The 
former, in describing the parish of Selborne, says. 
The high part to the south-west consists of 
a vast hill of chalk, rising 300 feet above the 
village, and is divided into a sheep down, the 
High Wood, and a long hanging wood called the 
Hanger. The covert of this eminence is alto- 
gether Beech, the most lovely of all forest trees, 

* Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of 
the Countries visited by H» M. S. Beagle. 

Y 



320 THE BEECH. 

whether we consider its smooth rind or bark, its 
glossy foliage or graceful pendulous boughs." 
Gilpin, after pointing out the defects of the tim- 
ber of this tree, proceeds to say, " In point of 





VILLAGE OF SELBORNE. 



picturesque beauty, I am not inclined to rank 
the Beech much higher than in point of utility. 
Its skeleton, compared with that of the Oak, the 
Ash, and the Elm, is very deficient. Its trunk, 
we allow, is often highly picturesque; it is 
studded with bold knobs and projections, and 
has sometimes a sort of irregular fluting about 
it, which is very characteristic. 



THE BEECH. 



821 



It has another peculiarity, also, which is some- 
times pleasing, — that of a number of stems aris- 
ing from the root. The bark, too, often wears 
a pleasant hue. It is naturally of a dingy olive ; 
but it is always overspread, in patches, with a 
variety of mosses and lichens, which are com- 
monly of a lighter tint in the upper parts, and 
of a deep velvet-green towards the root. Its 
smoothness also contrasts agreeably with these 
rougher appenda^ges. But having praised the 
trunk, we can praise no other part of the skele- 
ton. The branches are fantastically wreathed 
and disproportioned, turning awkwardly among 
each other, and running often into long unva- 
ried lines, without any of that strength and firm- 
ness which we admire in the Oak, or of that 
easy simplicity which pleases in the Ash ; in 
short, w^e rarely see a Beech well ramified. In 
full leaf it is equally unpleasing ; it has the 
appearance of an overgrown bush. This bushi- 
ness gives a great heaviness to the tree, which 
is always a deformity: what lightness it has, 
disgusts. You will sometimes see a light branch 
issuing from a heavy mass ; and though such 
pendent branches are often beautiful in them- 
selves, they are seldom in harmony with the 
tree. They distinguish, however, its character, 
which v\^ill be seen best by comparing it with 
the Elm. The Elm forms a rounder, the Beech 
a more pointed, foliage ; but the former is al- 
ways in harmony with itself. 

Sometimes, however, we see, in Beeches of 
happy composition, the foliage falling in large 
flocks or layers elegantly determined ; between 
which the shadows have a very forcible effect, 



322 



THE BEECH. 



especially when the tree is strongly illumined. 
On the whole, however, the massy, full-grown, 
luxuriant Beech is rather a displeasing tree. 
It is made up of littlenesses, seldom exhibiting 
those tufted cups, or hollow dark recesses, which 
dispart the several grand branches of the more 
beautiful kinds of trees. Contrary to the general 
nature of trees, the Beech is most pleasing in 
its juvenile state, as it has not yet acquired that 
heaviness which is its most faulty distinction. 
A light, airy, young Beech, with its spiry branches 
hanging, as I have just described them, in easy, 
forms, is often beautiful. I have seen, also, the 
forest Beech, in a dry, hungry soil, preserve 
the lightness of youth in the maturity of age. 

After all, however, we mean not to repudiate 
even the heavy, luxuriant Beech in picturesque 
composition. It has sometimes its beauty, and 
oftener its use. In distance, it preserves the 
depth of the forest ; and even on the spot, in 
contrast, it is frequently a choice accompaniment. 
In the corner of a landscape, when we want a 
thick heavy tree, or part of one at least, which 
is often necessary, nothing answers our purpose 
like the Beech. But at present we are not con- 
sidering the Beech in composition, but only as an 
individual ; and in this light it is which we chiefly 
conceive it as an object of disapprobation." 

Now it is very clear that the two authors whom 
I have just quoted, at the time when they describ- 
ed the tree, were actuated by very different feel- 
ings : White approaches it as a genuine lover of 
Nature, with a vision quick to discover, and pre- 
disposed to admire, all that is beautiful in form 
and colouring, admirable in structure, or impres- 



THE BEECH. 



323 



sive in proportions— every reality of Nature, in 
short, which might present itself to him in its 
perfect state. It does not occur to him to con- 
sider what combinations of the Beech with other 
objects would make a beautiful picture, or how 
the painter would manage the lines formed by the 
branches in transferring them to his canvass. He 
discovers no awkwardness" in the intertwining 
of the limbs, and feels no disgust" a.t the light- 
ness of the spray : the former is to him the na- 
tural characteristic of the tree ; and he is well 
pleased to look up and admire the delicate twigs 
with their scattered leaves painted on the curtain 
of the heavens. He sees things as they exist 
in nature, and is not for the time aware that 
to the artist they have another, independent ex- 
istence : he is, as a naturalist, unconscious that 
w^hat is beautiful in nature is not of necessity 
picturesque in art. Gilpin, however, though he 
might, if he chose, divest himself of the feehngs 
of the painter, and then admire all that seemed 
admirable to the other, cannot do so without an 
effort. Carried away by the same feelings, he 
pronounces also a very harsh judgment on the 
Havv thorn. 

Sir T. D. Lauder, remarking on Gilpin's stric- 
tures on the Beech, says, with great propriety, 
^^It must be observed here, that this is one of the 
instances in which the author's love for the art 
of representing the objects of Nature with the 
pencil, and his associations with the pleasures of 
that art, have very much led him away. We 
are disposed to go along with him in a great 
measure, so far as we, like him, draw our associa- 
^ See page 199, 



THE BEECH. 



tions with tliis tree from tlie same source. But 
we conceive we have much the advantage of him. 
in being able to indulge in the pleasure arising 
from the contemplation of a noble Beech as one 
of the most magnificent objects of God's fair 
creation. Some of the verv circimistances which 
render it unpicturesque. or. in other words, which 
render it an unmanageable subject of art_. highly 
contribute to render it beautiful. The glazed 
surface of the lea.f, which brightly rehects the 
sun's rays_. and the gentle emotions of light, if 
we may venture so to express ourselves, which 
sometimes steal over the surface of its foliage 
with the breathino' of the bahny breeze, although 
difficult, or rather almost inv:" to be re- 

presented by the artist, are t.. :..c::ts which are 
productive of very pleasing ideas in the mind of 
the feeling observer of nature.'" 

On the whole, therefore, \\dthout going so far 
as to assert that none of the objections alleged 
against the Beech by oih great authority on fo- 
rest scenery are tenable. I may say with safety, 
that, in spite of them all. the Beech is a noble 
tree in nature — beautiful, as delineated by the 
hand of the Creator, however difficult it may 
be for the painter to represent it with the pen- 
cil in such a way as to produce a pleasing effect 
on the mind. And it is a tree which has many 
points of interest about it at all seasons of the 
year. Enter a grove of Beeches on a bright 
day in mid-winter : the mind is immediately en- 
gaged in meditating on the still solemnity that 
reigns around. Look where you \rill. Xatr^re 
is in a state of deejD repose, if not of sus- 
pended animation : there is as little semblance 



THE BEECH. 



325 



of growing life as in the cloisters of a cathedral. 
The ground is bare of everything save withered 
leaves^ and dead twigs, and wrinkled husks ; 
every herb, if any ever grew here, has hidden 
itself under the brown covering of the earth, 
as if afraid to show signs of life in that universal 
solitude. As far as the eye can reach, on all 
sides extends an irregular succession of lofty 
fluted columns, which seem to have been chiselled 
to their existing proportions ; for nowhere is 
there to be detected a single rugged trunk in- 
dicative of expansive growth, nor one to which 
the mantling Ivy imparts a borrowed semblance 
of ^dtality : the very lichens which chequer 
their smooth barks seem to be monumental, 
rather than endowed with life. Overhead the 
long wavy boughs are intersecting each other at 
every possible angle, but all stark and rigid. 
The wiry twigs which form a network over the 
whole, are apparently striving to escape from the 
solemn influence which reigns below. Yet there 
is no gloom here, for the sun, as if aware that 
this is the only season at which his rays can 
penetrate these recesses, makes up in bright- 
ness for what he wants of heat. And, if we 
look a little more closely, we shall discover, that, 
though Nature is asleep, her ^dtal functions 
have only withdrawn themselves from sight ; 
mysterious operations are still going on, of which, 
though we cannot now comprehend them, v\'e 
shall in a few months have no difliculty in dis- 
covering the results. Examine one of the long 
and sharp buds with which every branch is so 
plentifully furnished, and, although we may be 
unable to account for the apparent suspension 



326 THE BEECH. 

of life in deciduous^ trees, or to discover what 
operations are being carried on in the silent 
laboratory of Nature, we shall have no difficulty 




TWIG OF THE BEECH IN WINTER. 



in discovering that the providence of God is 
watching over every bud, and doing for it what- 

* Deciduous trees are those which shed their leaves at the ap- . 
proach of winter. 



THE BEECH. 



327 



ever is necessaiy, in order that it may, at the 
return of spring, be converted into a leafy shoot. 
Wrapped up in a mantle of silk and waterproof 
scales, the tender nursling is protected against 
wind and rain and cold, and is provided with all 
that it needs in order to maintain a healthy ex- 
istence, but not with that, whatever it may be, 
which could stimulate it to throw off its integu- 
ments, and come forward into the light of Heaven 
before the time assigned by its Maker. Ex- 
amine again the younger trees on the skirts of 
the grove. They are still clothed vrith the 
shrivelled foliage of the preceding summer. One 
would imagine that, exposed to the autumnal 
blasts as they have been, they would be the first 
to shed their leaves. But no ! after these had 
fulfilled their ofiice as living organs, another re- 
mained to be performed, and they must stay 
w^here they are until thrust off* in the spring 
by the expanding buds. We know not what 
their office is ; perhaps it is to protect the em- 
bryo leaves of the coming year, while the tree 
is yet young and tender : but even though we 
may be wrong in our surmise, the error cannot 
be an important one, if it has led us to meditate 
faithfully on the watchful superintendence which 
God exercises over all the works of His creation. 

We may often see, on the bole of a Beech, 
scattered excrescences called knurs," varying 
in size from a pea to a large marble. They 
may be separated from the tree by a smart blow 
with a stick, and are found to be composed of 
a solid ball of wood, surrounded by a layer of 
bark like that of the rest of the tree. The woody 
part is completely imbedded in bark, from which 



328 



THE BEECH. 



they would appear to liave been deposited, thus 
confirming tlie well-known fact that such is uni- 
versally the origin of woody fibre. Whether 
they originated from the puncture of the bark 
by an insect, or from what other cause is not 
known. If planted in the earth, it is said that 
they will grow : but I am not aware whether they 
ever shoot forth while attached to the tree. 
Come again to this spot, 

" When rosv-footed May 
Steals blnsliing on." 

The delicate leaves with their glossy silk fringe, 
now so carefully wrapped up in the bud of from 
twenty to tlfirty membranous scales, will then be 
showing their vi^dd green on the lower branches, 
the bud scales as yet loosely clinging to their 
base. In a few days more the verdure creeps 
up the whole tree, gradually deepening in hue. 
and assuming a brighter polish. The silken 
fringe, which was so conspicuous when the 
leaf emerged from its vinter's covering, becomes 
more scattered as the leaf increases in size, the 
latter being slightly notched, and having the veins 
beneath downy. The young twigs at first droop 
gracefully, but in about a fortnight's time, as- 
sume an erect, or horizontal direction. But we 
shall look in vain for a carpet of herbage beneath 
their shade. Here and there a sickly holly has 
resisted the malignant influence of its drip, or a 
tangled bed of Periwinkle * has established itself, 
and grows on luxuriantly, unaftected by the pre- 
vailing cause of sterility : but, with these excep- 
tions, the Beech has appropriated the vdiole of 



* Vifioa minor i 



THE BEECH. 



329 



the soil. "Where it has obtained the sway, it 
suffers no other verdure to exist. Consequently, 
the ground, covered with decaying leaves at all 
seasons of the year, always presents the same ap- 
pearance. As summer advances, a few^ Orchideous 
plants* may be detected here and there, but not 
sufficiently numerous or striking in appearance 
to alter the character of the scene. 




FOLIAGE AND FLOWERS OF THE BEECH. 

By the time that the foliage is fully developed, 
the flowers also have made their appearance. 
These are of two kinds : the barren, which are 
of a bro\TO hue, three or four together in round 

* Gymnadenia hifolia^ Listera nidus-avis, &c. 



330 



THE BEECHo 



drooping heads the fertile flowers are solitary 
and on stouter stalks. The first soon vrither 
and drop off" ; the latter produce seed-vessels, 
which are covered with blunt prickles, and, as 
they ripen, open in four valves, disclosing two 
sharply triangular, pointed nuts. It is when 
seen in the full luxuriance of its summer foliage 
that the Beech is most admired ; at this season 
it is, if a solitary tree, a mass of shining deep 
green, from the ground to its summit ; and the 
lover of Nature, who has taken refuge in a grove 
of Beeches from the sultry heat of a cloudless 
summer's day, will not fail to experience that 
inexplicable feeling of sadness, mingled with long- 
ing, which the contemplation of Nature's greater 
works always excites. 

Under the broad Beech-tree" honest old 
Isaac Walton loved to sit, ^ viewing the silver 
streams glide silently towards their centre, the 
tempestuous sea;" and, as he thus sat, these 
and other sights so fully possest his soul with 
content, that he thought^ as the poet has happily 
exprest it, 

^ I was for that time lifted above earth, 
And possest joys not promised in my birth.' " 

Fletcher chooses the same retreat for the hum- 
ble and contented hero of one of his laj^s : — 

No empty hopes, no courtly fears him fright, 
No begging wants his middle fortune bite ; 
But sweet content exiles both misery and spite. 



* These, after they have fallen from the tree, are sometimes care- 
fully collected by gardeners, dried, and preserved for packing fruit. 
They are as soft as cotton, and do not communicate any kind of. 
scent to the fruit. 



THE BEECH. 



331 



His certain life, that never can deceive him, 

Is full of thousand sweets, and rich content : 
The smooth-leaved Beeches in the field receive him 
With coolest shade, till noon-tide's heat be spent. 
His life is neither tost in boisterous seas. 
Or the vexatious world, or lost in slothful ease ; 
Pleased and full blest he lives, when he his God can please." 

The grateful coolness perceptible in woods of 
Beech, and indeed all trees which cast a deep 
shade, is produced by the combined influence of 
three several causes, each depending on a distinct 
physical fact. The first, which may be said to be 
purely mechanical, is so plain, that every one 
must be acquainted with it : the direct rays of 
the sun are intercepted by the foliage, and are 
thus prevented from heating the ground and the 
air. But how comxes it that the same effect is not 
produced by any other kind of shelter, the roof 
of a house or tent for instance? The latter inter- 
cepts the sun's rays more completely, perhaps, 
than the leafy shelter of the grove, for, however 
thick the foliage may be, a few straggling rays 
contrive to force a passage through. Yet the 
fresh coolness of an over-arching Beech-grove is 
as different as possible from the mere shelter 
afforded by any artificial roof. 

The reason is, that, in the former case, two 
natural operations are simultaneously going on, 
which have the effect of cooling the air in the 
vicinity of the foliage, and of preventing the 
covering itself from becoming heated; whereas, 
in the case of the artificial roof, only one of these 
causes operates at all, and that in a very limited 
degree. These are radiation of heat and evapora- 
tion. All bodies possess the property of parting 
with their heat, which is constantly proceeding 



332 



THE BEECH. 



in all directions, and in straight lines from every 
part of their surface, the quantity of heat thus 
lost or radiated being proportionate to the 
extent of surface of the body. Now it is evident 
that the quantity of surface contained by the 
trunk, branches, and leaves of a tree must be 
many times greater than that of the ground 
which the tree covers ; consequently, the diminu- 
tion of heat must be greater in the same degree. 
For this reason alone, we should expect to find 
the leaves of a tree much cooler than the bare 
gromid, supposing that both were alike submitted 
to the rays of the sun. To this cause must be 
added another. Every plant, during its state of 
active growth, that is, as long as it is in leaf, and 
is exposed to the influence of air and light, is 
constantly absorbing moisture by its roots, and 
transmitting it through the branches to the leaves. 
Here it is partially converted into proper nou- 
rishment for the tree, and either added to the 
substance of the leaves themselves, or returned to 
the branches ; but far the greater portion passes 
into the air in the form of an invisible vapour. 
Now, water cannot be converted into vapour 
mthout being combined with heat.* This heat, 
whether it be supplied direct from the sun or 
from the leaves, is lost to the tree; consequently, 
the latter, as well as the surrounding air, is kept 
cool. When the sun is brightest the evapora- 
tion is greatest, the supply from the roots being 
proportioned to the drain on the leaves. f 

* This fact may be familiarly illustrated by moistening the hand 
with any fluid which evaporates quickly, as ether, spirits of wine, la- 
vender, &c., when a sensation of cold is produced, the hand parting 
with its heat in order that the liquid may be converted into vapour. 

f So, in summer, we choose to walk on the grassy turf, which 



THE BEECH. 



333 



A fourth cause of the coohiess of the air in a 
wood^ dependent on those already mentioned, 
may, and probably does, also exist, though I have 
never had an opportunity of testing the efficacy of 
this. On the outside of the wood, the air nearest 
to the ground would naturally be the warmest, 
and would consequently rise into the upper re- 
gions. Colder air from the wood would rush out 
to supply the place of that which had ascended, 
and thus a light breeze would be produced, con- 
stantly setting from the centre of the grove to its 
circumference. On this theory we are to ac- 
count for the superior stillness of our summer 
nights over the days, the temperature during the 
absence of the sun being more nearly equalised. 

This may seem a long and uncalled for digres- 
sion ; but I am unwilling to pass by any oppor- 
tunity of drawing the attention of my readers to 
those instances of design on the part of our 
Heavenly Father, which, though mainly instru- 
mental to the production of other efiects, are 
greatly conducive to the comfort and enjoyment 
of mankind. In the present instance we have a 
striking example of several of the more secret 
operations of Nature, each exercising a peculiar 
influence of its o^^ll, yet all harmoniously com- 
bining to produce an effect appreciable by us, and 
contributing to our advantage. Were we to look 
on them in another aspect, we should find each 
cause combining with others to further some 

skirts tlie higtLway road, rather than on the road itself, the combined 
effects of radiation and evaporation rendering the grass cooler to the 
feet. In a winter's morning we prefer the dry road, radiation of 
heat from the blades of grass having reduced them to so low a tem- 
perature, that they are covered with dew or hoar-frost condensed 
from the warmer atmosphere around them. 



334 



THE BEECH. 



end distinct from the first, but, regarded in what- 
ever light we please, co-operating to perfect the 
will of God : 

" Thus all tilings have their end, yet none but Thine.'* 

For a graphic description of a Beech-wood in 
autmnn, I must refer to Gilpin, who, in his 
account of Boldrewood, in the New Forest, finds 
himself compelled to qualify his own. strictures on 
the deficiency of pictui'esque beauty in this tree. 
After repeating the substance of the remarks 
quoted above, he proceeds to say : If the trees, 
however, as individuals, were less pleasing, their 
combinations were highly beautiful, and exhibited 
much scenery from those natural openings and 
glades, which are so often found in the internal 
parts of forests. 

^^AU the woods around Boldi'ewood Lodge 
abound in Beech. The mast of this tree is the 
most fattening food for deer, and gives such 
repute to the winter venison of Boldrewood walk, 
that a stranger would have ^ifiiculty in getting a 
king's warrant for a doe executed in it. These 
woods also aff'ord excellent feeding for hogs, 
which are led in the autumn season into many 
parts of the forest to fatten on mast. It is among 
the rights of the forest borderers to feed their 
hogs in the forest during pa^raage month, as 
it is called, which commences about the end 
of September, and lasts six weeks. For this 
privilege they pay a trifling acknowledgment 
at the Steward's court at Lyndhurst. The word 
pawnage was the old term for the money thus 
collected. The method of treating hogs at this 
season of migration, and of reducing a large herd 



THE BEECH. 



335 



of these unmanageable brutes to perfect obe- 
dience and good government, is curious. The 
first step the swineherd takes, is to investigate 
some close, sheltered part of the forest, where 
there is a conveniency of water, and plenty of 
Oak or Beech mast. He fixes next on some 
spreading tree, round the bole * of which he 
wattles a slight circular fence of the dimensions 
he wants, and, covering it roughly with boughs 
and sods, he fills it plentifully with straw or fern. 

Having made this preparation, he collects his 
colony among the farmers, with whom he com- 
monly agrees for a shilling a head, and will get 
together perhaps a herd of five or six hundred 
hogs. Having driven them to their destined 
habitation, he gives them a plentiful supper of 
acorns or Beech-mast, which he had already 
provided, sounding his horn during the repast. 
He then turns them into the litter, where, after a 
long journey and a hearty meal, they sleep de- 
liciously. The next morning he lets them look a 
little around them ; shows them the pool, or 
stream, where they may occasionally drink — 
leaves them to pick up the ofi'als of the last 
night's meal — and, as the evening draws on, 
gives them another plentiful repast under the 
neighbouring trees, which rain acorns upon them 
for an hour together at the sound of his horn. 
He then sends them again to sleep. 

The following day he is probably at the 
pains of procuring them another meal, with music 

* The hole or holl of a tree ; the body of a tree, as a Thorn-boll. 
The term holling trees is applied to pollards whose heads and branches 
are cut off, and only the bodies left. So in Exodus, ix. 31, The 
flax was boiled," that is, had shot up into a stem. 

Z 



336 



THE BEECH. 



playing as usual. He then leaves them a little 
more to themselves, having an eye, hovrever, on 
their evening hours. But, as they are not hungry, 
they seldom wander far from home, retiring very 
early and orderly to bed. After this he throws 
his sty open, and leaves them to cater for them- 
selves ; and from henceforward has little more 
trouble with them during the whole time of their 
migration. Now and then, in calm weather, 
when mast falls sparingly, he calls them perhaps 
together by the music of his horn to a gratuitous 
meal ; but, in general, they need little attention, 
returning regularly home at night, though they 
often wander in the day two or three miles from 
their sty. There are experienced leaders in all 
herds, which have spent this roving life before, 
and can instruct their juniors in the method of it. 

In these forest migrations, it is commonly 
observed, that, of w^hatever number the herd con- 
sists, they generally separate, in their daily 
excursions, into such little knots and societies as 
have formerly had habits of intimacy together ; 
and in these friendly groups they range the 
forest, returning home at night in different parties, 
some earlier and some later, as they have been 
more or less fortunate in the pursuits of the day. 

^' Besides the hogs thus led out in the mast 
season to fatten, there are others, the property of 
forest keepers, which spend the whole year in 
such societies. After the mast season is over, 
the indigenous forest hog depends chiefly for 
his livelihood on the roots of fern ; and he vv^ould 
find this food very nourishing, if he could have it 
in abundance. But he is obliged to procure it by 
so laborious an operation, that his meals are rarely 



THE BEECH. 



accompanied witli satiety. He continues, how- 
ever, by great industry, to obtain a tolerable 
subsistence through the winter, except in frosty 
weather, when the ground resists his delving 
snout : then he must perish if he do not in 
some degree experience his master's care. As 
spring advances, fresh grasses, and salads of dif- 
ferent kinds, add a variety to his bill of fare ; 
and, as summer comes on, he finds juicy berries 
and grateful seeds, on which he lives plentifully 
till autumn returns and brings with it the extreme 
of abundance."* 

The Beech-tree possesses little legendary in- 
terest, and its medicinal virtues, which in Pliny's 
time were considered numerous, are fallen into 
disrepute. At Domremy, in Lorraine, formerly 
stood a Beech-tree, under which Joan of Arc, 
who was born at that place, was supposed to have 
had her interview with Saint Margaret and Saint 
Catharine. Another legend is connected with 
the Beech wood of St. Leonard, near Horsham. 
That saint, it is said, wished to rest beneath the 
Beech trees, but being disturbed during the day 
by the biting of vipers, and at night by the 
warbling of nightingales, at his request these 
animals were removed; since which time, tra- 
dition says of the forest, 

" The viper has ne'er been known to sting, 
Or the nightie gale e'er heard to sing." 

The name Beech is of northern origin ; bece 
being the Saxon, bak the Swedish and Russian, 
and biicJie the German name. Its mast was 
formerly called buck in this country. In some 



* Forest Scenery. 



338 



THE BEECH. 



parts of France," says Evelyn, "they grind the 
buck in mills." Buck-wheat, the seed of Poly- 
gonum Fag opy rum ^ derives its name from its simi- 
larity in shape to the mast of the Beech. The 
wood of the tree having been formerly used for 
forming the sides of volumes, the word " book " 
came to be applied to the volume itself. * 

The common Beech is always raised from seed, 
and the varieties are propagated by grafting or 
budding. The mast soon loses its germinating 
power, and is therefore never sown later than the 
spring of the year w^hich follows its ripening. The 
seed leaves, which appear above the ground in 
April or May, are singularly pale, and at the first 
glance might be mistaken for a fungus. In ten 
years the tree reaches a height of about twenty 
feet. In sixty or eighty years it has usually attain- 
ed its perfection as timber, but lives for a much 
longer period. It is not well adapted for coppice- 
wood, ceasing to send up shoots after about thirty 
or forty years ; though if cut down before this 

* It is worth noticing how many words connected with literature 
bear allusion to the materials anciently used in writing, &c. The 
substances first employed were tables of stone and metal ; from this 
source we derive the expression " Tables of W^eights and Measures." 
Tables of wood were afterwards employed, covered with wax, which 
were written on b}^ means of an instrument pointed at one end for 
forming the letters, rounded at the other for the convenience of 
erasing : this was called a style^ a word which we retain with an al- 
tered meaning. Paper is derived from the Egyptian papyrus : we 
still speak of the leaves of a book, though the leaves of the Palm tree 
are no longer used for the purpose of writing on. Folio is from 
the IjRtm, folium^ a leaf. Liher^ the Latin for a book, meant originally 
the inner bark of such trees as the Lime, the Ash, the Maple, the 
Elm, at one period a common writing material : hence we call a 
collection of books, a library. This substance being rolled for the 
convenience of carriage, a collection of writings was called a volume, 
a name afterwards given to like rolls of paper and parchment. 



THE BEECH. 



339 



time, the trees push up again, and the leaves on 
the shoots so produced seldom fail to remain on 
the branches during the winter. Young trees 
generally are, as it has been observed above, 
liable to the same peculiarity, but not all in the 
same degree. On this account, fences of young 
Beech trees may be employed with advantage 
in flower-gardens, as with their persistent foliage 
they screen the tender plants during the mnter. 
Gilbert White remarks, that Beeches love to 
grow in crowded situations, and Vvill insinuate 
themselves through the thickest covert, so as 
to surmomit it all ; they are therefore properly 
applied to mend thin places in tail hedges : care 
should be taken, however, not to plant them 
in situations where the drip might be injurious 
to the vegetation beneath. Yv^here squirrels are 
abundant, it is sometimes found necessary to 
protect the trunks of young Beeches by the 
application of tar and grease, these destructive 
little animals being given, especially in spring, 
to tearing off the bark in strips, in search of the 
tender inner bark. 

An interesting fact recorded by Evelyn* would 
tend to show that many of our natural Beech 
woods stand where Oaks originally grew : That 
wdiich I would observe to you from the wood 
at Wooton is, that vrhere goodly Oaks grew, and 
were cut down by my grandfather almost a hmidred 
years since, is now altogether Beech ; and where 
m.y Brother has extirpated the Beech, there rises 
Birch. Under the Beech spring up innumerable 
Hollies, which, growing thick and close together 
in one of the woods next the meadow, is a vireticm-f 

* Letter in Aubrey's Surrey. f A leafy wood. 



340 



THE BEECH. 



all the year long, wliicli is a verv beautiful sight 
when the leaves of the taller trees are fallen." 
Strutt also observes that the Beech is of that 
encroaching and dominant nature, that a vv'ood 
which may have been originally in equal pro- 
portions of Oak and Beech, vrill in course of 
time become entirely Beeches. 

The leaves of the Beech may be applied to a 
very useful purpose, even after they have ceased 
to afford their summer's shelter. Evelyn says, 
that, being gathered about the fall, and some- 
what before they are much frost-bitten, they af- 
ford the best and easiest mattresses in the world 
to lay imder our quilts instead of straw : because, 
besides their tenderness and loose lying together, 
they continue sweet for seven or eight years, 
long before which time straw becomes musty 
and hard. They are often thus used by divers 
persons in Dauphine ; and in Switzerland I have 
sometimes lain on them to my great refreshment." 
Modern travellers state that in those countries 
they are still applied to the same purpose. 

The nuts of the Beech are rarely used in 
England except for fattening swine and poultry ; 
but in Trance an excellent oil is manufactured 
from them, which is extensively employed both 
for culinary purposes and for burning ; in Silesia 
it is used by the country people instead of butter. 
A similar application of Beech mast has been 
projected in England, but appears never to have 
been carried into effect. A certain speculator in 
the reign of George the Eirst proposed a scheme 
for paying off the national debt with the oil of 
Beech nuts ! 

The green wood is heavier than that of any of 



THE BEECH. 



341 



our timber trees^ but loses nearly a fourth of its 
weight in drying. Though tolerably hard, it 
is easily worked, and is applied to a great variety 
of uses. The principal objection to it is, that it 
is liable to be perforated by a small beetle. In 
Scotland, Loudon informs us, the branches and 
spray are distilled for producing pyroligneous 
acid ; and the wood, branches, and twigs are much 
used for smoking herrings. It will bear being 
cut into very thin plates, and is consequently 
much used for making the scabbards of swords. 
In Evelyn's time, the art of cutting the wood into 
these thin plates was not known in England, and 
when discovered was long kept secret. The 
neat-looking, but very inconvenient, basket for 
holding strawberries, called a pottle, is made of 
Beech. The same material was employed in the 
days of Evelyn, who refers the custom to remote 
antiquity. It is also preferred to every other 
wood for making the wooden shoes called sabots, 
worn by the French peasantry. By being dried 
in the smoke of burning green wood, these ac- 
quire the property of resisting the attacks of 
insects. It forms an excellent fuel, and is no 
less useful, when converted into charcoal, for the 
manufacture of gunpowder. 

Beechen furniture has been made by poets, 
both ancient and modern, the emblem of humble 
rustic content : — 

" No wars did men molest 
When only Beechen bowls were in request."* 

TiBULLUS. 



* " Nec bella fuerunt, 
Faginus adstabat cum scyphus ante dapes." 



342 



THE BEECH. 



If thoTi, without a sigh, or golden T\'ish, 
Canst look upon thy Beechen bowl and dish, — 
If in thy mind such power and greatness be, — 
The Persian king 's a slave, compared T\dth thee. 

" Hence, in the world's best rears, the humble shed 
Was happily and fully furnished : 

Beech made their chests, their beds, and their join'd stools ; 
Beech made the board, the platters, and the bowls." 

Cowley, 

" Let herbs to them a bloodless banquet gire. 
In Beechen goblets let their bev'rage shine, 
Cool from the crystal spring their sober wine." 

Milton. 

" A Beechen bowl, 
A Maple dish, my furniture should be. 
Crisp, yellow leaves my bed." 

Wordsworth. 

Several singular varieties of the British Beech 
are in cultivation, which deserve a passing notice. 
The Purple Beech has its leaves in their early 
stage of a bright rose-coloui^, which, as the season 
advances, deepens to a rich purple, approaching 
black. It is a native of Germany, where it was 
discovered about the middle of the last century. 
It is usually propagated by grafts, plants raised 
from seed having a tendency to revert to the 
common form of the tree. This variety presents 
a beautiful appearance, when scantily interspersed 
among other trees in a lawn or grove, but should 
never be planted alone. The Cut-leavedi. Beech 
has its leaves indented, so as almost to resemble in 
shape the leaves of a fern. The Weej)ing Beech 
is said to be the most elegant tree of British 
growth. A writer in the Gardener''s Magazine 
(vol. vii. p. 375) states, that, in the park of J. C. 
Mountray, county of Tyrone, Ireland, there are 



THE BEECH. 



343 



some, the trunks of which measure upwards of ten 
feet in circumference, and that the branches, 
which extend fifty feet from the stem, touch 
the ground. 

Comparatively few insects attack the Beech, 
and those which do are chiefly the grubs of 
moths. The fungi which attack the leaves and 
bark are more numerous. Among those which 
grow on the ground in Beech woods, the most 




MORELS. 

remarkable are the Morel* and the Truffle.f 
The former of these is a mushroom-like fungus. 



Morchella esculenia. 



t Tuher cibarium. 



3U 



THE BEECH. 



growing in great abundance in tlie woods of 
Germany and France, particularly after any of 
tlie trees have been burnt do^vn. This fact hav- 
ing been observed, led in Germany to the burniiir 
of the woods^ in order to procure Morels ; ana. 
consequently, great numbers of trees were de-- 
stroyed. till the practice was forbidden by law. 
They are highly j^rized for the table, both in 
their fresh and dry states. In the countries 
where they abound, many persons gain their 
livelihood by gathering and drying ^I'Jorels, which 
last they effect by running a thread through their 




stalks, and hanging them in an airy place. In 
England they are comparatively rare : but ^Ir. 
Berkeley states that he has knovrn them to be 
so abundant in Kent, as to be used for making a 
sort of catsup. The Trufhe. which is also highly 
prized in cookery, is very dithcult to find, being 



THE BEECH. 



345 



at all stages of its growth buried beneath the 
ground. It is black and warty ; white within^ and 
marbled with dark veins. It possesses a strong 
but agreeable smelly and is generally found by 
dogs and pigs trained to search for it ; but, in 
those countries where Truffles abound, in the 
month of October (which is their season for 
ripening), all the inhabitants repair to the woods, 
slightly stirring, or rather scratching the ground 
in those places which experience points out to 
them as the most likely to contain the tubers. 
The high price of, and constant demand for Truf- 
fles, both in France and other countries, renders 
this a very lucrative employment ; and experienced 
hunters are rarely deceived in the places where 
they make their search."* Berkeley {Eng, Flora^ 
vol. V. part ii. p. 228) quotes an instance of a 
poor crippled boy who could detect Truffles with 
a certainty superior even to that of the best dogs, 
and so earned a livelihood. 

Edible fungi are not peculiar to the Beech 
woods of Europe. Darwin, in the narrative 
quoted above, says, ^' There is one vegetable 
production deserving notice, from its import- 
ance as an article of food to the Fuegians. It 
is a globular, bright yellow fungus, which grows 
in vast numbers on the Beech trees. "When 
young it is elastic and turgid, with a smooth 
surface ; but when mature, it shrinks, becomes 
tougher, and has its entire surface deeply pitted 
or honey-combed. This has been named by Mr. 
Berkeley ' Cittaria Darwinii' I found a second 
species on another species of Beech in Chili, and 

* Loudon's Arhoretum Britannicum, 



346 



THE BEECH. 



a third species has lately been discovered on a 
third species of Beech in Van Diemen's Land. 
How singular is this relationship between para- 
sitical fungi and the trees on which they grow, 
in distant parts of the world ! In Tierra del 



Fuego, the fungus in its tough and mature state 
is collected in large quantities by the women 
and children, and is eaten uncooked. It has a 
mucilaginous, slightly sweet taste, with a faint 
smell like that of a mushroom. With the excep- 
tion of a few berries, chiefly of a dwarf Arbutus, 
the natives eat no vegetable food besides the 
fungus. In New Zealand, before the introduc- 
tion of the potato, the roots of the fern were 
largely consumed. At the present time, I believe, 
Tierra del Fuego is the only country in the 
world where any plant belonging to either of 
these tribes affords a staple article of food." 

Among the many remarkable Beeches now 
standing in England, the following are most 
worthy of note. 

Of the Beeches in Windsor Park, Jesse says, in 




CITTARIA DARWINII. 



THE BEECH. 



347 



his Gleanings, " It is impossible to view these 
* sires of the Forest/ without feeling a mixture 
of admiration and wonder. The size of some 
of them is enormous ; one near Sawyer's Lodge 
measures, at six feet from the ground, thirty- 
six feet round. It is now protected from 
injury, and Nature seems to be doing her best 
towards repairing the damage which its exposure 
to the attacks of man and beast have produced. 
It must once have been almost hollow, but the 
vacuum has been nearly filled up. One might 
almost fancy that liquid w^ood, which had after- 
wards hardened, had been poured into the tree. 
The twistings and distortions of this huge mass 
have a curious and striking effect. There is no 
bark on this extraneous substance, but the surface 
is smooth, hard, and without any appearance of 
decay." 

In Buckinghamshire, a country which is in- 
debted to this tree for its name * (Buchen-Heim, 
the home or land of Beeches,) stand the Burnham 
Beeches, immortalised by the poet Gray, who 
gives the following description of them to Horace 
Walpole : — I have, at the distance of half a 
mile, through a green lane, a forest (the vulgar 
call it a common) all my own, at least as good as 
so, for I spy no human thing in it but myself. 
It is a little chaos of mountains and precipices ; 

* "Here," says Strutt, "the Beech reigns in undivided sovereignty, 
scarcely admitting an Oak to share its domain, so that we may easily 
imagine how it must have overrun the country before the opposing 
influence of agriculture was known ; indeed, we are told by old his- 
torians , the country was rendered impassable by the thickness of its 
woods, and the shelter they afforded for marauders and thieves, until 
several of them were cut down by Leofstar^, Abbot of St. Albans." 
{DelicicB Sylvarum.) 



348 



THE BEECH. 



mountains^ it is true, tliat do not ascend much 
above the clouds, nor are tlie declivities quite so 
amazing as Dover Cliff; but just such hills as 
people, who love their necks as much as I do, may 
venture to climb, and crags that give the eve as 
much pleasure as if 'they were more dangerous. 
Both vale and hill are covered with most venera- 
ble Beeches, and other very reverend vegetables, 
that, like most other ancient people, are always 
dreaming out their old stories to the winds : 

^ And as they bow tlieir hoary tops, relate, 
In murmiirmg sounds, the dark decrees of Fare : 
"While visions, as poetic eyes avow, 
Cling to each leaf, and swarm on ever}' bough.' 

At the foot of these I lay myself down, and 
there grow to the trunk for a whole morning. 
The timorous hare and sportive squirrel gambol 
around me, like Adam in Paradise." The youth 
to fortune and to fame unkno^ra" has thus en- 
shrined the substance of these remarks, in the 
most beautiful ode in the English language : — 

"There at the foot of yonder nodding Beech, 
That wreaths its old fantastic roots so high, 
His listless length at noon-tide would he stretch, 
And pore upon the brook that bubbles by.'" 

The Purley Beeches, a beautifully executed 
engraving of which stands at the beginning of 
this chapter, are of great antiquity. They ap- 
pear to be not much known, but their history 
Avould be well worth enquiring into. Popular 
tradition assigns them to the age of William the 
Conqueror. 

Numerous other remarkable trees are noticed 
by Loudon, Lauder, &c., averaging from twelve 



THE BEECH. 



349 



to thirty feet in circumference, and from eighty 
to one hundred and fourteen feet in height. 
Several figures are also given by Loudon, show- 
ing the tendency of the branches of the Beech 
to grow together wdien they touch in crossing. 
The annexed figure, taken from the Arloretum 
BrHannicum, represents a very singular example 
of this peculiarity in a tree standing in West 
Hey Wood, between Cliff and^Stamford. 




BEECH TREE IN WEST HEY WOOD. 



A A 




LOMBARDY POPLAR. 



THE POPLAR. 



PoPULUS. 

Class — DiCECiA. Order — Octandria. 

Natural Order — AMENTACEiE. 

No greater contrast can be well imagined than 
that afforded by the trees of this tribe, when 
compared with the one which forms the subject 
of the last chapter. The terms ancient, um- 
brageous, wide-spreading, picturesque, may be 
applied to the Beech with propriety; the very 
reverse of all these will characterise some one 
or other of the Poplars. The contrast extends 
even to their places of growth ; for while the 
hill-side is the favourite haunt of the Beech, 
the Poplar, for the most part, prefers the river's 
bank. The foliage of the Beech, again, is 
heavy, unless examined in detail ; that of the 
Poplar scanty, and remarkable for being nearly 
always in motion, a peculiarity to be attri- 
buted to the slenderness and singular formation 
of its leaf-stalks. It bears its flowers in cat- 
kins : these are of tw^o kinds, each growing on 
separate trees, the barren conspicuous for their 
length and the large size of the anthers, on 
which account they have been compared to large 
red caterpillars ; the fertile ones, Vvhich are 
often equally long, may readily be distinguished 
by the downy wool which invests the seeds, and 



354 



THE POPLAR. 



which is so like cotton, that it has, though with 
indifferent success, been manufactured into cloth 
and paper. Most of the tribe are very prolific 
in suckers from the root. The wood is soft and 
light, and of little worth in the arts and manu- 
facture's. It certainly possesses one property 
which makes it valuable for some purposes, 
that, namely, of being very difficult to ignite ; 
hence it may be employed with advantage in 
flooring rooms. The name Populus is said by 
some to be derived from a Greek word {iratTrdWco, 
to vibrate) bearing allusion to the tremulous 
motion of its leaves. Others say that the tree 
derived its name from being considered in an- 
cient Rome the tree of the people" {arbor 
populi), a circumstance which brought it into 
notoriety during the French Revolutions, and 
procured for it the unenviable notoriety of be- 
ing erected by the mob in the public places 
as the Tree of Liberty." 

Four species are indigenous to Great Britain, 
and many others have been introduced, and are 
now extensively cultivated. Of these last a short 
notice will suffice, although one of them, the tall 
Lombardy Poplar, is probably more generally 
known than any of the native kinds. 



THE WHITE POPLAR, or ABELE TREE. 



PoPULUS ALBA. 

THE GREY POPLAR. 

PoPULUS CANESCENS. 

There appears to be some doubt among au- 
thors whether both these trees ought to be con- 
sidered as natives of Britain, or whether the lat- 
ter only is indigenous, Evelyn describes the 
White Poplar, and mentions also a finer sort, 
^Svhich the Dutch call Abele,* and we have of 
late much of it transported out of Holland." 
About the middle of the sixteenth century, as 
many as 10,000 trees of the same kind are said 
by HartlifF to have been imported from Flanders, 
and transplanted into many countries. The fact 
is, the trees are so much alike in character, that 
we may safely conclude that the tree which we 
call the Grey Poplar was knomi to the earlier 
writers as a native tree by the name White 
Poplar, which title was subsequently transferred, 
for the sake of distinction, to the Abele ; the 
British tree receiraig the epithet of " grey" for 
the same reason. The mere casual observer would 
scarcely observe the difference between the two ; 
botanists, indeed, are not agreed whether they are 

* The English name of Abele is deriyed from the Dutch name of 
the tree, Abeel ; and this name is supposed hj some to be taken 
from that of the city of Arbela, in the plains of Nineveh, near 
which, on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, great numbers of 
these trees grow. — Loudon. 



356 THE WHITE POPLAR, 

distinct species, or only varieties. It is, therefore, 
scarcely worth inquiring to which kind should be 
referred Co^^'per's 

Poplar, tliat with silver lines his leaf 

or what tree Barry Cornwall commemorated, when 
he sung 

" The green woods moved, and the light Poplar shook 
Its silver pyramid of leaves." 




LEAF OF WHITE POPLAR. 

The leaves of both may be distinguished from 
the other British species by being deeply jagged, 
the grey less so than the white. The leaves of 
both are white with down beneath, particularly 
the latter, which also are larger than those of the 
other. The fertile catkins of the Abele are oval, 
and each flower is furnished with four pistils : 
those of the Grey Poplar are long and cylindrical, 
and the flowers contain eight pistils each. In 
all other respects the trees are so similar, that 



OR ABELE TREE. 



357 



for the remainder of the chapter I shall include 
them under the same name. 




CATKINS OF GREY POPLAR. 

The White Poplar was famous in the mytho- 
logy of the ancients^ being consecrated to Her- 
cules^ who, in commemoration of one of his 
victories gained in a place w^here this tree was 
growing in abundance, used to wear a chaplet 
of its leaves, a custom which was adopted by 
persons who sacrificed to him. Pliny gravely 
states that the White Poplar, as well as several 
other trees which he mentions, always turned its 
leaves to an opposite quarter of the heavens 
immediately that the summer solstice was past. 
Though modern science has not confirmed this 
observation, the tree may frequently be noticed 
turning up the white surface of its leaves during 
the hufiling winds which we often experience 
in summer, and this is a pretty sure indication 
of approaching rain.* 

* ** I think there will be rain," a little girl was overheard to say, 
" for the weather tree is showing its white lining." 



358 



THE WHITE POPLAR. 



The White Poplar is a tree of very rapid 
growth, attaining a height of from eighty to a 
hundred feet. When about fifty or sixty years 
old it is in perfection ; soon after this it begins 
to decay inwardly, but will continue growing for 
a century longer. Evelyn recommends it as a fit 
tree to be planted by " such late builders as seat 
their houses in naked and unsheltered places, and 
that would put a guise of antiquity upon any 
new inclosure ; since by these, while a man is on 
a voyage of no long continuance, his house and 
lands may be so covered as to be hardly known at 
his return.'* In England we rarely see many of 
them growing together, as they are generally 
planted to contrast with trees of darker foliage ; 
but in France they are in some places so abun- 
dant as to be the prevailing trees in extensive 
tracts of country, and their wood, called white 
wood," is used as fuel, to the exclusion of almost 
all other firing. 

The timber, which is soft and light, was 
anciently used for making shields, for which its 
property of yielding under a blow eminently 
fitted it. Nails may be driven into it without 
splitting it ; hence it may be used with advantage 
for packing cases. Being very light, it is made 
into the rollers used by linen-drapers ; and, on 
account of its uninflammable properties, more 
than its extreme whiteness, it is well adapted 
for flooring rooms. 

The White Poplar is propagated either by 
suckers, which rise in great numbers from the 
roots, by cuttings, or by layers. 




BLACK POPLAR. 



THE BLACK POPLAR. 



PoPULUS NIGRA. 

The Black Poplar, according to Dr. Hunter, 
derives its name from a black circle perceptible at 
the centre of its trunk when felled; Loudon seems 
to think that it received the name from the dark 




LEAF OF BLACK POPLAR. 

colour of its bark ; but it is far more probable 
that it was originally so called from its having 
darker foliage than the White Poplar. It may 
well be distinguished from the other British 



362 



THE BLACK POPLAR. 



species by its pointed and slightly notched leaves, 
which are smooth on both sides. 

It was known to Pliny, who recommends it to 
be planted as a support for \dnes, a purpose to 
which, owing to the scantiness of its foliage, 
it is well adapted. An ancient fable in Roman 
mythology relates that Phaeton, having obtain- 
ed permission from his father to drive the horses 
of the Sun for a day, became terrified, and that 
Jupiter, to prevent a general conflagration, hurled 
him from his chariot into the river Po, where 
he was drowned. His sisters wandered up and 
down the banks, inconsolable for his loss, till 
they were converted into Poplars, and wept 
amber for tears. 

" Nor must the Heliads' fate in silence pass, 
Whose sorrow first produced the Poplar race : 
Their tears, while at a brother's grave they mourn, 
To golden drops of fragrant amber turn/' 

The Black Poplar is a tree of very rapid growth, 
and attains a great size. It is consequently often 
planted as an ornamental tree, though within the 
last thirty years its place has been much usurped 
by foreign species. The bright green colour of 
its foliage never at rest, and sparkling in the light 
of the sun, especially after a summer shower, is 
very pleasing to the eye. The seeds when ripe 
are invested with thick cottony down, and being 
carried away by the wind, frequently produce 
trees in situations where they would be least 
expected. A m'iter in the Gardeners'' Magazine 
states that the kitchen-garden at Versailles was 
entirely neglected from the beginning of the 
French Revolution until 1819 ; and that, in the 



THE BLACK POPLAR. 



363 



interval, the light downy seeds of the black Pop- 
lars and Willows of the neighbouring woods had 
sprung up from the ground, and from the crevices 
of the walls, and attained even a timber size. 
The same author records a similar instance in 
Moscow, where, in 1814, he saw springing up 
everywhere, from the ashes of those ruined houses 
which had not been rebuilt, plants of the native 
Black Poplar.* Thus, had Moscow been left to 
itself, that immense city would have become by 
this time a natural forest. 

The timber arrives at perfection in about fifty 
or sixty years, soon after which it begins to 
decay. In the arts it is of no great value ; and 
owing to its lightness and softness, is not much 
used, except for packing-cases and soles of shoes, 
&c. In Russia the bark is used in the prepara- 
tion of morocco leather, and in England for tan- 
ning leather. Loudon states that the bark of the 
old trunk is employed by fishermen for buoying 
up their nets, and mentions other uses to which 
various parts of the tree may be appKed, but 
none of these are important. 

There are many trees of this species existing 
in Great Britain which exceed seventy feet in 
height : one at Bury St. Edmund's is said by 
Strutt (from whose Sylva the engraving at the 
head of this chapter is taken) to be ninety feet 
high and fifteen feet in circumference at one 
yard from the ground. The trunk rises forty-five 
feet before it divides, and then it throw^s out a 
profusion of branches. But the largest on re- 
cord is one, mentioned in Feldborg's Denmark, 



* Loudon states this to be the Aspen. 



364 



THE BLACK POPLAR. 



in the south of Zealand, near the school of 
Herlussholm : it is upwards of a hundred feet 
high, and its trunk is twenty -two feet in circum- 
ference. In 1828 it is stated to have been a 
majestic tree, in full vigour and without a decayed 
branch. 



THE TREMBLING POPLAR, or ASPEN. 



PoPULUS TREMULA. 

The Aspen is described by Pliny under the 
name of Libyan Poplar, and is said to have a very 
small dark leaf, in great repute for its galls. It 
is a native of a very extensive range of country, 
being found throughout the whole of the south 
of Europe, Asia Minor, and in Lapland to the 
Frozen Ocean. It prefers wet soils, but is by 
no means confined to the Low countries ; for in 
Scotland it flourishes at an elevation of 1600 feet 
above the level of the sea. It derives its English 
name, Aspen, from the German name of the tree, 
Espe, and may readily be distinguished from the 
other British species by its round leaves, which 
are of a dark shining green above, and much paler 
beneath, though destitute of the downy covering 
which characterizes the White Poplar. The 
leaf-stalk is remarkably long and slender, and 
being compressed vertically towards its upper 
extremity, is too weak to support the leaf in a 
horizontal position. Consequently, the lightest 
breeze sets it in motion, and hence originated its 
name. Trembling Poplar. 

This peculiarity has obtained for the Aspen 
the unenviable distinction of being selected as 
the poetical emblem of restlessness, inconstancy, 
and fear. 



THE TREMBLING POPLAR. 




ASPEX. 

""With every change his features play'd. 
As Aspens show the light and shade." 

Hearts firm as steel, as marble hard, 
'Gainst faiih, and love, and pity barr'd, 
Have quaked like Aspen leaves in ^-lay." 

" Variable as the shade, 
By the light quivering Aspen made." 

Sir W. Scot 



His hand did quake, 
And tremble like a leaf of Aspen green." 

Spenser 



OR ASPEN. 



367 



On the other hand^ an Aspen-tree in a state of 
perfect rest furnishes a beautiful natural emblem 
of a summer calm. In the following passages, 
two of our great poets of Nature appear to have 
vied with each other in the selection of their 
imagery : — 

Gradual sinks the breeze 
Into a perfect calm, that not a breath 
Is heard to quiver through the closing woods, 
Or rustling turn the many twinkling leaves 
Of Aspen tall. Th' uncurling floods diffused 
In glassy breadth, seem, through delusi\ e lapse, 
Forgetful of their course. 'Tis silence all, 
And pleasing expectation. 

Thomson. 

Into a gradual calm the zephyrs sink, 
A blue rim borders all the lake's still brink ; 
And now, on every side, the surface breaks 
Into blue spots, and slowly lengthening streaks. 
Here, plots of sparkling water tremble bright 
With thousand thousand twinkling points of light : 
There, waves, that hardly weltering die away, 
Tip their smooth ridges with a softer ray. 
And now the universal tides repose. 
And, brightly blue, the burnish'd mirror glows, 
Save where, along the shady western marge. 
Coasts with industrious oar the charcoal barge : 
The sails are dropp'd, the Poplar's foliage sleeps. 
And insects clothe, like dust, the glassy deeps. 

Wordsworth. 

. Lightfoot tells us that the Highlanders enter- 
tain a superstitious notion that our Saviour's cross 
was made of this tree, for which reason they 
suppose that its leaves can never rest. Super- 
stitions of this class originated partly in that love 
of the marvellous, w^hich is the characteristic of 
ignorance, and partly, perhaps, in feelings of refa 
piety ; but the sober-minded Christian will not 
allow his faith in Revelation to be affected by a 

B B 



368 



THE TREMBLING POPLAR^ 



mere natural plienomenon. " All is miracle " that 
tends to confirm liis belief in God's superintending 
Providence, but lie humbly refuses to derive from 
the visible ^vorld any teaching but that which 
Revelation confirms. Reason teaches him that 
the trembling of the Aspen is dependent on the 
peculiar mechanism of its leaves, and is to be ac- 
counted for by reference to natural causes : and 
though he fails to discover the purpose of this 
peculiarity in structure, he is satisfied vv-ith ob- 
serving a new instance of creative power, and 
prefers to confess his ignorance of design rather 
than be indebted to Xature for evidence which 
Revelation alone can aff'ord, and which God's 
HoIt Spirit alone can make efiicacious. 

The Aspen does not generally attain so large a 
size as the Black Poplar, though there are speci- 
mens in existence seventy or eighty feet high. 
Evelyn says, that the Aspen thrusts down a 
more searching foot'* than that tree, ^* and in this 
likewise diff'ers, that he takes it ill to have his 
head cut off';" meaning, that the roots extend to 
a great distance, and that the branches are impa- 
tient of pruning. The roots, however, do not de- 
scend far beneath the surface, and are remarkable 
for sending up numerous suckers, wliich, if the 
tree be planted in a lawn or garden, are very trou- 
blesome, and require to be eaten or mowed down. 
It is not a long-lived tree, beginning to decay in- 
ternally when about sixty .or eighty years old. 

The bark of tlie Aspen is said to be a favourite 
food of the beaver, and its leaves are greedily 
devoured by many domestic, as well as wild ani- 
mals. The timber is used for nearly the same 
purposes as that of the other species. As fii^e- 



OR ASPEX. 



369 



wood it burns brightly, but rapidly, giving out 
but little heat. 

As an ingredient in the la.ndscape, the Aspen 
presents the most pleasing appearance in situa- 
tions where the playful change of its foliage is 
thrown out by a dark background. 

In Belgium it is said to be particularly liable 
to the attacks of the larvse of many insects, which 
are collected by order of the authorities and 
destroyed. 

A chemical principle, called popidine, has been 
extracted from the bark and leaves of the Aspen, 
w^hich has a sweet taste like that of liquorice, and 
crystallizes in the form of delicate white needles. 
Its properties are but little known. 



FOREIGN POPLARS. 



Although the trees belonging to this genus 
which have been described are undoubtedly in- 
digenous to the soil, the most familiar of all to 
English readers, and that which is most likely to 
recur to their minds when the Poplar" is named, 
is the tall, gaunt, fomial, Lombardy Poplar (Po- 
pulus fastigiata)). It is said to be not a native of 
Europe, but to have been introduced into Pavia 
from Asia about the year 1590, which would 
account for the fact that the accurate observer 
Pliny, who describes the other species, does not 
mention this. It was introduced into England 
about the middle of the last century, and some of 
the original trees stood until within the last ten 
or twelve years, having attained a height of more 
than 100 feet. It is a very fast grower, in- 
creasing, when favourably situated, at the un- 
usually rapid rate of five feet in a year, or even 
more. Some Poplars on the banks of the Seine, 
near Rouen, had, in 1837, reached the surprising 
height of 150 feet, having been then planted 
about thirty -four years. 

When Gilpin wrote, the Lombardy Poplar had 
not long been introduced ; he mentions it, how- 
ever, and points out a peculiarity which it possesses, 
of being swayed to and fro throughout its whole 
length by the action of the wind. Most trees," 



FOREIGN POPLARS. 



371 



he says, ''in boisterous weather are partially agi- 
tated : one side is at rest while the other is in 
motion. But the Italian Poplar waves in one 
simple sweep from the top to the bottom, like 
an ostrich feather on a lady's head. All the 
branches coincide in the motion ; and the least 
blast makes an impression upon it, when other 
trees are at rest." 

The claims of the Lombardy Poplar to pic- 
turesque beauty are very slight. Standing alone, 
it is rather a deformity than an ornament ; 
nevertheless, planted sparingly in clumps, it has 
the effect of breaking too level a line, whether 
formed by round-headed trees in plantations or 
by large buildings. Loudon devotes seven or 
eight pages of his Arboretum to the proving that 
in many situations the Lombardy Poplar does 
possess claims to picturesque beauty ; but men- 
tions so many instances of its destroying the har- 
mony of the landscape, that his arguments are far 
from carrying conviction with them. In England 
we are most familiar with Poplars planted in a 
formal row in front of some suburban cottage. 
In such situations they are sadly misplaced. Amid 
scenery, too, which has any pretension to wild- 
ness, they have a decidedly bad effect, converting 
the natural woodland into an artificial plantation ; 
for they do not, like most other introduced 
trees, blend with those by which they are sur- 
rounded, but seem to tower above them all, to 
proclaim, as it were, their foreign origin. This 
objection, of course, will not apply to them in 
their native haunts ; there, no doubt, they har- 
monise vv^ith the other natural objects around 
them. I have nowhere seen them so decidedly 

B B 3 



372 



FOREIGN POPLARS. 



ornamental as on the banks of the Thames, at 
Fulham. 

The wood is of as little value in the arts as the 
tree itself in the landscape, being scarcely applied 
to any other purpose than that of making packing- 
cases. 

The Balsam Poplar, or Tacamahac {Populus 
halsamifera)y was cultivated in Britain as early as 
1692. It is a native of North America, and is 
remarkable for its large gummy buds, which, 
as well as its delicately yellow young leaves, dif- 
fuse a pleasing odour. The Ontario Poplar 
{Populus candicans) differs from the last in bear- 
ing larger leaves^ which are heart-shaped at the 
base. 

The Necklace-bearing, or Black Italian Poplar, 
{Populus moniliferd), derives the first name from 
its seed-vessels, which are arranged along a 
common stem like beads. Why it was first 
called Italian" is not so clear, for it appears 
to have been brought originally from some part 
of North America. Selby considers it the 
most valuable of all the Poplars hitherto intro- 
duced, as it grows with astonishing rapidity, 
and produces timber of large size and excellent 
quality. 

The Athenian Poplar {Populus GrcEcd) scarcely 
deserves its classical name, not being a native 
of Greece, but of the township of Athens in 
North America. It is a handsome, vigorous tree, 
approaching nearer to the Aspen than to any 
other of the Poplars, from which, however, it may 
be readily distinguished by its longer and more 
pointed leaves, and the ashen grey colour of the 
bark on its young branches. It is a very rapid 



FOREIGN POPLARS. 



373 



grower, having been observed to produce shoots 
eight or ten feet long the first season. 

Several other kinds of Poplar are cultivated 
in Great Britain, which resemble more or less 
those above mentioned, and require no distinct 
notice. 



END OF THE FIRST 



VOLUiME. 



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